


A Change of Fate

by MissWriteress16



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, BAMF Harry Potter, BAMF Hermione Granger, BAMF Remus Lupin, BAMF Sirius Black, Belligerent Sexual Tension, F/M, Fem!Harry also pretends to be James's cousin, Harry Potter is now Paige Potter, Hijinks and Shenanigans Ensue, Who ends up in an alternate universe with Hermione, and the two raise Harry with Sirius and Remus, between Sirius and fem!Harry mostly, fem!Harry Potter - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2019-06-06 21:46:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15204140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissWriteress16/pseuds/MissWriteress16
Summary: Paige Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived, is used to her life being weird though she hoped with the Dark Lord's defeat she could regain some level of normality.Unfortunately, the universe still has it out for her.One duel with Death Eaters and a curse later, she and her best friend Hermione find themselves in an alternate universe where the Girl-Who-Lived is now the Boy-Who-Lived and, oh, it just so happens to be October 31st, 1981.Unwilling to let what happened in their timeline happen here and determined to protect and raise the Boy-Who-Lived in a loving home Paige (along with an exasperated Hermione) must join forces with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin to not only raise Harry (and not kill each other in the process) but stop Voldemort from coming back.It's a lot harder than it sounds, actually, especially when you add in irritating purebloods, nosey reporters and Paige's tendency to be a walking trouble magnet.





	1. Why Does This Always Happen to Us?

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Threads of Time by gr8rockstarrox

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...this is something.
> 
> I have been a fan of Harry Potter since, god, forever? and I've always wanted to write a fanfiction for it, however I never found the time or an idea I was particularly attached to.
> 
> Then (for whatever reason) I had the image of a female Harry (Paige) and Hermione accidentally ending up in an alternate timeline with Harry Potter and deciding screw the rules, we're going to fix this.

Paige Lily Potter really did not know how she got herself into these situations. Well, she did know actually: she was Paige and that seemed to be enough to make the universe hate her.

It was a little over a year after Voldemort’s fall and the Ministry was still recovering from his reign, trying to hunt down remaining Death Eaters and put them in Azkaban.

Which was how she, after catching sight of one such Death Eater while out for lunch with her friend Hermione Granger, ended up crouched behind a stack of boxes while said Death Eater firing curse after curse at them.

“How,” Hermione panted as she quickly fired a shield spell to deflect a curse before ducking out of sight. “Is it that we can’t just enjoy a nice day? We go out for lunch and you end up deciding to chase down a Death Eater.”

“Are you really blaming this on me?” Paige questioned, ducking to avoid a curse that destroyed a box behind her.

“Yes, because you’re Paige Potter and you attract trouble wherever you go.” Was Hermione’s dry reply and—well, Paige really couldn’t argue with that statement.

Paige began scanning her surroundings and spotted a wall that gave them a more strategic advantage. “Hermione, do you see that?”

The brunette muggleborn followed her friend’s gaze, narrowing her eyes. “How do you want to do this?”

“On three?” Paige asked quietly, watching Hermione tilt her head in thought before nodding briskly. “One…two…three!”

The two women quickly came out of their hiding place, keeping low to the ground as they hurried towards the other wall.

Unfortunately, they didn’t know the Death Eater had managed to call one of his friends for backup and thus were completely unaware of the other person lurking in the shadows.

Without hesitating the second Death Eater raised his wand, silently casting a curse that he no doubt hoped would end the Chosen One and her muggleborn best friend.

However, it seemed Fate had a different idea.

Paige heard her best friend’s terrified cry and quickly turned her head to see the curse flying towards them.

Hermione quickly grabbed her friend’s arm, trying to pull her out of the path of the curse but she wasn’t able to in time.

The curse hit both girls and caused a bright light to surround them, forcing the Death Eaters to cover their eyes.

When the light vanished, Paige Potter and Hermione Granger were nowhere to be seen.

* * *

 

“Ow…when I get my hands on those Death Eaters…”

Paige muttered under her breath as she slowly sat up, feeling as if she had been hit with a thousand bludgers.

She quickly noticed that she was no longer in the alley, but instead in a forest. That _really_ didn’t bode well for her or Hermione…

“Hermione!”

Paige exclaimed as she quickly got up, immediately scanning the area for her best friend. Her heart stopped when she spotted familiar curls coming out behind a rock.

“Hermione, oh god, please be alright.”

The Girl Who Lived begged as she hurried over, narrowly avoiding tripping over a branch. She pointed her wand at the brunette, casting a quick _Rennervate_ and almost cried with relief when she saw Hermione begin to cough.

“What happened? Why are we in a forest?”

The muggleborn quickly demanded as she took note of their location while Paige helped to her feet. “Are we being set up for an ambush?”

“I think if we were, it would have already happened,” Paige pointed out, though she didn’t put away her wand.

The girls exchanged silent looks before Hermione also drew her wand, the duo slowly walking towards a faint light they could see in the distance.

“Wait, is that…?”

“Yeah,” Paige replied in a breathless voice. “That’s Godric’s Hollow.”

The tiny little village was the same as Paige remembered it, although she couldn’t help but think that there was a different feel about it.

As if she was moving on auto-pilot Paige found herself walking towards the direction of her childhood home. Hermione followed close behind, nervously glancing over her shoulder every few seconds.

The instant the cottage came into view, however, the Girl Who Lived knew something was wrong.

It was still destroyed, her nursery a blown-out hole, but the foliage that seemed to overtake it was absent and there were fresh scorch marks on the gates: the door had practically been blown off its hinges as well.

“This doesn’t make sense,” she heard Hermione mutter as she came to stand beside her. “Why does the damage look so…fresh?”

“Maybe it’s a trick?” Paige suggested. “By the Death Eaters, to confuse us so they can get the drop on us?” Hermione pursed her lips, deep in thought.

It was an odd trick, sure sending them to where Voldemort had first fallen made sense—the arrogant bastards probably wanted it to be poetic or something—but why make the damage fresh?

Hermione was brought out of her musings when Paige quietly walked through the gate. “Wait a minute, Paige where are you going?”

Paige glanced over her shoulder, a wry smile on her face. “We aren’t going to learn anything just standing around out here.”

“Yes but,” Hermione broke off, letting out a groan as her friend determinedly walked towards her childhood home. “It’s a bloody miracle I’m still friends with her.”

She muttered under her breath before quickly following her friend, who had already entered the cottage.

The interior of the cottage was as badly damaged as the outside, furniture had been thrown against the wall and pictures lay smashed on the ground.

Hermione and Paige both froze when they heard a sound they didn’t expect: a baby crying. Paige shared a look with her friend before making her way over to the stairs.

She stopped suddenly, causing Hermione to nearly run into her. “Paige what’s…?”

Hermione questioned, following her friend’s gaze and freezing in shock and disbelief at what she was seeing.

There, lying partially on the stairs with his glasses askew, was James Potter’s lifeless body.

“No…” Hermione whispered. “No, this can’t—how can this…?”

For once in her life, she was utterly speechless, desperately trying to process how she was seeing the body of her best friend’s father in front of her instead of buried in the grave beside his wife.

Paige was white in shock, the hand that held her wand shaking as she stared at her father with wide eyes.

_Father…Daddy…_

Another cry broke her out of her trance, gripping her wand tightly she continued up the stairs.

When she looked behind to see if Hermione was still following her she saw her best friend crouched down beside her father, carefully fixing his glasses before she closed his eyes.

Hermione stood up after she shut his eyes, meeting her friend’s watery gaze with a soft smile before following her.

The witches walked down the narrow hallway towards the nursery, wands out in front of them and a nervous feeling gripping their chests.

Paige entered first and nearly collapsed when she saw her mother lying in front of the crib, red hair spanned out beneath her as if it was a pillow she was resting her head on.

On shaky knees she slowly walked over to her, falling on her knees beside her mother and carefully brushing some hair out of her face.

“Mum,” she whispered, tears falling down her face as she stared at Lily Potter’s green eyes—now devoid of any light—before closing them like Hermione had done with her father.

Hermione moved to go to her friend, to offer some kind of comfort even though she knew Paige would never accept it when her attention was drawn to the crib where a baby with familiar black hair and bright green eyes was crying for their parents.

Moving on pure instinct Hermione moved to gather the baby in her arms, letting out a breath when she saw a familiar lighting-shaped scar on their head.

“May I take him?”

A soft voice questioned from behind, making Hermione turn and see her best friend—face still wet from crying—holding out her arms for the baby.

Hermione handed the baby to her and watched as Paige seemed to instantly calm the baby down by whispering soothing words before kissing his forehead.

“That’s you, I mean,” Hermione questioned, breaking the silence. “At least, it’s supposed to be you right?”

“It is,” Paige agreed as she stared down at—well, her she supposed. “But a different version of me.”

“A different version of you?” Hermione parroted, wrinkling her nose in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Paige opened her mouth to explain but was cut off by a rough voice asking in a low tone, “Who the hell are you and what are you doing with my godson?”

The two women whirled around, Hermione raising her wand and stepping in front of Paige, to see a younger and _very_ angry Sirius Black glaring at them from the doorway, wand pointed at them.

Despite the confusing situation Paige couldn’t help but let out a silent gasp at seeing her godfather—well, technically he’s the godfather of the boy in her arms, but you know what she meant—alive.

His black hair reached his shoulders and he was dressed in a leather jacket over a t-shirt with a muggle band combined with matching trousers and motorcycle boots. Dark, almost black, eyes pierced her and, despite the fact she knew he wanted to murder her, she couldn’t help but be caught in their gaze.

_Out of all the ways to meet my godfather, it has to be him pointing his wand at me?_

Why couldn’t anything in Paige’s life ever be simple?

* * *

 With a fierce glare, Sirius took a step forward, his wand hand twitching with the urge to hex these two women. But he held back, knowing that if he did, he would likely hurt Harry in the process.

“I’ll ask you again,” he took another step forward, causing Hermione to gently push Paige further behind her as she kept her wand on him. “Why the hell are you holding Harry?”

“We’re not Death Eaters,” Hermione insisted, not lowering her wand. “We just accidentally ended up here—”

Sirius let out a laugh of disbelief, keeping his cold gaze on them. “Really, that’s a fine little story, why the hell should I believe you?”

“Because we know you’re innocent,” Paige cut in, causing Hermione to shoot her a look and Sirius to whip his head towards her in shock. “We know you’re not the Secret Keeper, you switched with Peter and he betrayed my p—James and Lily to Voldemort.”

Sirius briefly flinches when she says His name before his mind caught up with what she was saying. “Wait, how do you know I’m not the Secret Keeper?”

_Crap_ , Paige thought when she saw him narrowing his eyes at her while Hermione facepalmed at her friend’s idiocy.

“Look that’s not important right now,” Paige continued, adjusting Harry—at least she knew his name now—so it was more comfortable. “The point is, we need to go to the Ministry.”

“What? No!” Sirius hissed. “What I _need_ to do is go after that traitorous rat and make him pay for what he did.”

With that he turned on his heel, clearly getting ready to leave and chase after his once-best friend. Paige panicked and quickly grabbed his arm, vanishing with a _pop_ before reappearing outside the Potter cottage.

“What the hell was that for, you crazy woman?” Sirius sputtered, glaring at Paige as Hermione apparated behind them.

“That was me trying to stop you from doing something stupid!” She snapped back. “You have a godson to think about, so stop being such a bloody Gryffindor!”

“I am thinking about him, I’m thinking about going after the piece of _vermin_ that killed his parents!”

“He’s _one_ for god’s sake, he doesn’t care about revenge; he needs someone to look after him and so far you’re doing a piss-poor job!”

“Who the hell are you to tell me I’m doing a horrible job?”

“I—"

“ _Enough!”_

Hermione cut in fiercely, causing the two to turn towards her. “This isn’t getting us anywhere _and_ you’re scaring the baby!”

Now that she was no longer yelling at her godfather Paige realized that Harry had started crying, likely frightened by their loud argument.

“Shh, shh,” she attempted to soothe the toddler, bouncing him up and down gently. “Come on, it’s alright, we didn’t mean to yell.”

“Here, give him to me,” Sirius stated gruffly, stepping forward and holding out his arms.

Paige eyed him suspiciously as she gently tightened her grip on Harry, before relenting and handing him over when she realized that the toddler would likely be more comfortable with someone familiar.

“Hey there Prongslet,” Sirius said in a soft voice, cradling him against his shoulder. “We scared you, didn’t we? Uncle Padfoot is sorry, the mean lady just made him _really_ angry.”

Paige flushed angrily, opening her mouth to tell him off when she saw Harry let out a giggle and clap his hands together and, against her better judgement, found her anger dissipating.

“Isn’t this a touching scene?”

A harsh voice remarked dryly, causing the trio to whirl around and see Barty Crouch with a team of Aurors and Hit Wizards in front of them.

One of the Hit Wizards stepped forward. “Sirius Black, you are under arrest for the betrayal of the Potters.”

_“I didn’t betray James and Lily!”_

Sirius exclaimed, tightening his grip on his godson. Harry began to whine in protest of being held so tight, forcing Sirius to loosen his grip.

“We know you’re the Secret Keeper,” Crouch snarled. “You were the only person who knew of their whereabouts!”

“N-No…” Sirius whispered, starting to shake slightly. “James was my best friend, my brother, I could never betray him and Lily…”

Hermione and Paige shared nervous looks, knowing that Sirius’s reaction could easily be perceived as a guilty conscience and they needed to act fast.

“He’s telling the truth,” Paige stated firmly, taking a step forward and making Crouch turn his glare onto her. “And who the bloody hell are you?”

“Paige,” she replied, taking a deep breath. “Paige Potter.”

A collective silence fell over the gathered crowd, whispers beginning to rise as Crouch stared in shock at her. Paige could feel Sirius’s burning gaze on her back.

“Potter?” Crouch repeated. “Are you related to James?”

_Yes, I’m his only child and the one who defeated Voldemort_

Was the thought running through Paige’s mind, but she knew if she said that she may very well get chucked into Azkaban beside Sirius.

“I’m his cousin, distant cousin,” she corrected when she saw Crouch’s disbelieving look. “James and I were close when we were little, though we drifted apart when we both began attending school.”

“We reconnected after we graduated, however, to the point where he informed me of the Secret Keeper switch because he knew I was unknown to the Death Eaters and therefore would unlikely be targeted.”

“I’m sorry,” a dark-skinned Auror, whom Paige realized with shock was a young Kingsley Shacklebolt, questioned. “But did you just say there was a switch with the Secret Keepers?”

“Yes,” Paige replied, feeling her hands sweating as she continued her lie. “Originally they were going to use Sirius, but the man himself,” she nodded to Sirius who was still giving her an unreadable look. “Pointed out that it was far too obvious and suggested they switch to Peter Pettigrew, because who would suspect him?”

She heard murmurings of agreement from the Aurors and Hit Wizards, many of whom probably knew Peter personally, and she saw Crouch grit his teeth in frustration.

“I must admit, Miss Potter,” and boy did that not sound polite in the slightest. “That’s a very good tale you came up with, but it’s clearly nothing but nonsense.”

“It’s the truth!” Hermione exclaimed, startling everyone who hadn’t noticed she was there.

“Ah,” a familiar cheery voice stated. “I believe, Barty, that all good tales have some element of nonsense, don’t they?”

Crouch whirled around, his face growing pale when he saw a smiling Albus Dumbledore slowly making his way over.

Dumbledore ignored Crouch’s white face and turned to face a stunned Paige. “Paige, was it?”

“Y-Yes Professor Dumbledore,” Paige stammered, causing him to chuckle as his eyes twinkled at her. “Please my dear, call me Albus.”

_Yeah, that’s not going to happen._

Paige was suddenly nervous, knowing that if anyone could figure out she was lying it would be Dumbledore. She knew Hermione was aware of this as well if her hyperventilating behind her was any indication.

He stared intently at her and Paige fidgeted, getting a distinct impression that he was reading her mind and wondered what it was he saw.

Finally, after a long pause, he turned to look at Crouch. “I believe that there is truth to Miss Potter’s words, Barty, perhaps we should bring Sirius to the ministry and see if we can’t track down Mr. Pettigrew?”

It was phrased as a suggestion but Dumbledore’s serious expression heavily implied that it was more of an order, one that Crouch could not really refuse.

“Very well,” Crouch grumbled. “Shacklebolt, Bones,” the two Aurors stepped forward. “Escort Black to the ministry.”

“Right away Mr. Crouch,” Kingsley stepped forward, giving Sirius what seemed to be an apologetic look. “Sorry about this Black.”

Sirius nodded stiffly, turning reluctantly to Paige and holding Harry out to her. “Here, take Harry, will you?” Paige nodded, cradling Harry against her chest as she watched Amelia Bones stand on the other side of Sirius.

The three vanished with a _pop_ and Crouch turned to give orders to the other Aurors and Hit Wizards to track down Pettigrew, reluctantly Paige observed.

They eventually left as well after being given their order, leaving Paige and Hermione with Crouch and Dumbledore. Crouch nodded to Dumbledore before he apparated away.

Dumbledore turned to the two women, a warm smile on his face. “Do not worry, my dears, I believe you and will do everything in my power to ensure Sirius is given a fair trial.”

Paige nodded, smiling weakly. “Thank you, Prof—Albus.”

Dumbledore tilted his head in acknowledgement, his gaze wandering over to Hermione who had been quiet since her outburst. “And who might you be, my dear?”

Hermione turned bright red. “H-Hermione Granger, sir.”

“She’s my best friend,” Paige hurried to explain. “Been by my side since I was little.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Granger,” Dumbledore said in a warm tone. “I’m assuming by the fact I don’t recognize your name that you are, in fact, muggleborn.”

“Yes.”

Hermione muttered, straightening her shoulders and tilting her head up with a prideful look. Dumbledore chuckled at this, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

“Well, I believe we should probably move young Harry somewhere safer.”

This statement caused Paige to narrow her eyes, tightening her grip on Harry as she proclaimed in a low voice, “He’s not going to the Dursleys.”

Belatedly she realized her mistake, especially when Hermione let out a loud groan behind her when Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

“You must have been close to James,” he mused, “If he spoke of Lily’s sister and her family to you.”

“We were,” Paige informed him. “He told me of how horrid they were to Lily and if they were that horrible to her, surely they would treat her son equally bad?”

“Yes, well, unfortunately, it is important that Harry is housed with blood relatives,” Dumbledore seemed to lament, which made Paige shut her eyes. “However, given that you are James’s cousin and it’s clear you have already bonded with Harry somewhat, I believe that he will be safe and, most importantly, happy with you.”

Paige released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and she heard Hermione do the same behind her. “Thank you, Albus.”

Dumbledore chuckled. “It is no problem, however when I said we should move Harry somewhere safe I was thinking of Hogwarts, especially since Madam Pomfrey could check him over.”

He eyed the two women. “I believe she will also want to check you two over.”

Paige and Hermione looked at each other before glancing down at themselves, blushing when they realized they were covered in dirt and had (minor) injuries they had sustained from their brief duel with the Death Eaters.

Dumbledore held out his hands, Paige took one while holding Harry in her other arm and Hermione took the other before they vanished with a _pop_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the plot starts rolling.
> 
> We have the first instances of Sirius and Paige fighting because quite frankly I think the two of them have similar personalities (both raised in abusive homes, both didn't want to get sorted into Slytherin because of bad past experiences, both fiercely loyal to their friends etc) and thus they would clash, especially considering this is Sirius before Azkhaban and, well, he was probably still a bit cocky and arrogant which would probably rub Paige the wrong way.
> 
> Also, I included Kingsley and Amelia because Kingsley recognized James's physical similarities in Harry, implying that he knew James and Amelia was described as "middle-aged" which also implies she would have been around during this time (I don't know if she would have been an Auror, but she is here).
> 
> Remus will make an appearance next chapter, as will Minerva and maybe some other characters.
> 
> Please don't hesitate to tell me what you think, I would appreciate any constructive criticism.


	2. Explanations and Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paige and Hermione get checked out, meet Remus and tell their story
> 
> Oh, and Paige and Sirius become co-guardians of Harry with Remus and Hermione going along for the ride

It was nice, Paige thought bemusedly as Pomfrey hovered over her like a mother hen, to know that some things didn’t change.

The instant she and Hermione had walked through the doors of the infirmary—which both were _far_ too familiar with—Pomfrey had been on them, looking over Harry with a sympathetic expression and cooing over him (“The poor dear, how horrible it must have been”) before turning her attention towards the women.

They had been hustled over towards two cots and were ordered to sit, though Paige was allowed to keep Harry on her lap as she was checked out because he threw a fit when Pomfrey tried to take him.

“What on earth happened to you two?” Pomfrey demanded as she finished healing a cut on Paige’s cheek. “You look as if you’ve been a duel!”

“Well…” Paige began, only to quickly close her mouth when she saw the look on her friend’s face. “Yeah, something like that.”

Pomfrey gave her a look that said she didn’t buy it but made her way over to Hermione and began treating her wounds. At that moment Dumbledore entered the infirmary with a solemn expression that looked out of place on his normally cheerful face.

It made Paige feel a sense of dread well up in her chest.

“Is it Sirius?” She questioned. “Oh god, they’ve arrested him, haven’t they?”

Dumbledore raised his hands, stopping her from babbling any more. “No, my dear, Sirius is perfectly alright.”

“However, it would seem that upon being cornered by a team of Aurors and Hit Wizards asking if he had betrayed the Potters, Peter Pettigrew attempted to flee and, in the process, killed twelve Muggles, two Aurors and a Hit Wizard.”

Hermione shut her eyes, feeling an overwhelming sense of regret that, despite their efforts, they couldn’t save the lives of those innocent people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And three people, who had probably been alive in the original timeline, were now dead.

“The others sustained injuries and are being treated at St. Mungo’s,” Dumbledore continued, glancing over at the two women. “Peter Pettigrew is currently in a detainment cell.”

Hermione and Paige shared a look, at least he didn’t escape in this timeline. “I’m assuming that Sirius has been cleared then?”

Dumbledore nodded. “Yes, he’s on his way now and I do believe he’s bringing Mr. Lupin with him.”

At that moment the doors to the infirmary slammed open startling everyone except Dumbledore. “Where is he?”

Sirius demanded as he walked in, Remus Lupin quickly following him. “Where’s Harry Professor?”

“Calm down, my boy,” Dumbledore implored him, raising his hands. “He’s just fine, in fact, he’s quite content with Miss Potter.”

Remus sighed when he saw the scowl on his friend’s face, preparing himself for preventing a fight.

 After the two of them had patched things up—which involved a lot of apologizing on both their parts for thinking the other was the spy—Sirius had proceeded to rant about James’s mystery cousin who he found in James and Lily’s cottage and called him a horrible godfather, and how come they didn’t know James had a cousin and so on.

The rant had gone on for quite a while, and involved some colorful language that Remus knew Lily—god did that hurt just thinking about her—would have hexed them for using.

Remus admitted to being equally suspicious of this mysterious woman and her companion, because wouldn’t James have told them about her even if he was trying to keep her out of the war?

But at the same time, the werewolf couldn’t forget that she had essentially saved Sirius from being wrongfully imprisoned and seemed to care about Harry.

So, he would withhold any judgement, until he met these two women and got the chance to know them. At that moment he felt someone watching him and shifted his gaze to see one of the women staring at him.

She had light brown curls that fell past her shoulders and similar colored eyes that seemed to be slowly dissecting him. He admitted that he found her rather attractive, even with the dirt on her face.

God, his best friends had just been killed and he was thinking about a woman he just _met_? Maybe the grief was affecting him more than he thought.

Hermione…was not really sure what to think about this situation. Knowing Paige for as long as she did, she was used to getting involved in weird situations, but being sent to another dimension where her best friend was a boy took the cake.

Now she was staring at her former professor and was having the horrifying thought that he was _attractive_. It was, quite frankly, a miracle she hadn’t started screaming in frustration yet.

Realizing Remus was still staring at her she cleared her throat, turning pink as she held out her hand. “Hermione Granger, it’s nice to meet you.”

Remus took her hand, a gentle smile forming on his face. “Remus Lupin.”

The two of them stared at each other for a few minutes, unaware of everything else around them, until a very pointed cough broke the silence.

Hermione retracted her hand quickly, turning to see her best friend raising an eyebrow at her in question. She felt her cheeks pink and quickly shot her a look.

“You must be the mysterious Potter cousin I’ve heard so much about,” Remus remarked as he held out his hand to the dark-haired woman with the stunning green eyes that reminded him so much of Lily.

“Paige Potter,” the dark-haired woman introduced herself, pointedly ignoring the death glare Sirius was shooting her. “It’s nice to meet you Mr. Lupin.”

“Please, call me Remus,” the werewolf insisted with a smile. Paige returned it. “Very well, then I must insist you call me Paige.”

The sound of a throat being cleared made them redirect their attention to Dumbledore, whose eyes were twinkling. “Now that introductions are out of the way, and I’m assuming Poppy checked you out to her satisfaction, perhaps we could retreat to my office and discuss things further?”

Hermione and Paige shared a look before Paige stood, adjusting Harry in her arms as she followed the headmaster, her best friend and the two marauders following behind her.

Somehow, she got the feeling that she and Hermione would be spilling all their secrets.

* * *

 

“Here, come in and please take a seat,”

Dumbledore stated as he opened the door and ushered them inside, gesturing at the chairs. Hermione and Paige were given the chairs while Sirius and Remus chose to stand beside them, Sirius by Paige and Remus by Hermione.

“Now,” Dumbledore began. “Perhaps you could tell me who you are and why you are here?”

Paige let out a sigh as Sirius begins sputtering next to her. “I knew it! I knew you weren’t a relative of James…!”

“That’s not what I was saying at all, my dear boy,” Dumbledore stated calmly as he raised a hand to stop the doglike man’s rant. “There is no doubt in my mind that Miss Potter is a relative of James, however, I believe I am correct in stating that you are not his cousin?”

He directed the question to Paige, who looked at Hermione with a raised eyebrow as if asking a silent question. The brunette seemed to think it over before nodding.

Paige turned back to the Headmaster and took a deep breath. “My name is Paige Lily Potter, I was born on July 31st, 1980 to James and Lily Potter,” she ignored the sharp intake of breath on either side of her and kept her focus on the Headmaster who was looking at her with a serious expression.

“On October 31st, 1981 my parents were killed by Voldemort,” she sucked in a deep breath, fighting back the grief that had been buried beneath the surface since finding her parents’ bodies. “He then turned his wand on me but I deflected the curse back at him and seemingly destroyed him.”

She then proceeded to explain how she was sent to live with the Dursleys, her years at Hogwarts and the eventual war with Voldemort leading up to how she and Hermione ended up where they were.

 When she finished, a silence fell over the room like a blanket until Dumbledore cleared his throat. “It sounds like you’ve had quite the interesting life, Miss Potter.”

Paige chuckled bitterly. “Believe me, I would rather have had a nice boring life.” Dumbledore’s eyes lost their twinkle. “Yes, I imagine you would have.”

“Let me get this straight,” Sirius spoke up, having gotten over his shock and was now giving Paige a disbelieving look. “You are, in fact, not James’s cousin but his _daughter_ from another dimension who got teleported here after duelling with Death Eaters?”

Paige let out a sigh, giving him a dirty look that made him reel back in shock. “I realize it sounds outlandish, but it is the truth—here,” she pushed back her bangs to reveal the lightning-shaped scar that was identical to the one Harry had. “Believe me now?”

Remus cleared his throat, his eyes displaying an emotion that Paige couldn’t quite place. “I believe I do, Paige.” Sirius let out a grunt, though his expression told Paige that he did, at least, kind of believe her.

“Well,” Dumbledore’s eyes had resumed their famed twinkle. “Now that this is all settled, I believe it is time for Harry to get settled, arrangements will have to be made for him and you Miss Potter—”

“Wait, wait,” Sirius interrupted, glaring at Dumbledore. “I _am_ his godfather, he’ll be staying with me!”

“Where was this desire to fight for custody in my timeline?” Paige muttered under her breath, causing Hermione to gently nudge her. Sirius didn’t hear this comment, too focused on his staring contest with his former Headmaster.

“Unfortunately, it is important for Harry to live with blood relatives, as Miss Potter is no doubt aware,” Dumbledore said apologetically. “The only other option would be for him to live with his maternal aunt—”

“—absolutely out of the question!—”

“—which, as you can see, Miss Potter is strongly opposed to,” Dumbledore finished, giving the red-faced older Potter an amused grin. She flushed in embarrassment.

Sirius opened his mouth, likely to protest, but closed it and allowed his shoulders to slump in defeat. “However, Harry is your godson and I imagine Miss Potter and Miss Granger will need help navigating this world, so I would like you and Miss Potter to be Harry’s co-guardians.”

“ _What?”_

_“What?”_

Hermione let out a sigh as she watched her best friend and her new co-guardian exchange glares. She caught Remus’s eye, who smirked at her which made her flush.

“And of course, Miss Granger and Mr. Lupin will be helping you as well,” Dumbledore stated in a calm tone, his eyes doing the annoying twinkle thing again.

Hermione and Remus shared amused looks, recognizing that they had just been put into the position of not only caregivers to Harry but also babysitters of Sirius and Paige, which basically meant they were tasked with keeping the two from killing each other.

Hermione realized she had been staring at Remus, whose eyes were an oddly bright green, though not as bright as Paige—and she was going insane because this was her professor, well not in this timeline technically, but…

She quickly stopped that train of thought before it led her down somewhere she didn’t want to go, quickly turning her gaze forward and pushing down the blush threatening to rise. “Of course, Professor.”

Remus echoed her words, a soft smile pulling at his lips as he reached out to gently grasp Harry’s hand. Hermione couldn’t help but think his smile de-aged him by many years, making him look closer to his actual age.

Dumbledore clapped his hands. “Wonderful, I’ll let you go and get settled.” His expression became softer. “It will be a difficult few days, I imagine—please, feel free to use my Floo.”

He stood up and moved to exit his office before pausing, looking over his shoulder at the group. “And please, try to refrain from killing each other Mr. Black and Miss Potter.”

He joked before exiting his office, leaving the group by themselves. Remus sighed as Paige and Sirius instantly began arguing about who should hold Harry. “Easier said than done, Professor, easier said than done.”


	3. The Plot of Paige Potter and Hermione Granger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paige and Hermione begin forming their plan to defeat Voldemort and decide that they need to reform the Ministry.
> 
> Hermione thinks Paige is insane while Paige thinks this is going to be fun and Sirius and Remus are both amused

“Well, this is it: my humble abode.”

Sirius stated, stretching his arms out with a smirk as the four newly declared guardians of Harry Potter exited the floo.

Paige glanced around the small flat, adjusting Harry—she had won the argument—in her arms. “It’s…actually rather nice.”

If she was being entirely honest, she hadn’t expected much given that Sirius was a bachelor, but she found herself pleasantly surprised. The flat was minimally decorated and was actually kept pretty clean, in fact it had a quaint and rather cozy feel to it.

“What, did you think I lived in a pigsty?” Sirius questioned, causing Paige to give him a look as she replied in a deadpan tone. “Yes, actually.”

Remus quickly stepped in to prevent another argument breaking out. “I suppose we should figure out sleeping arrangements.”

Hermione nodded, shooting him a thankful look which he responded to with a wink that had her blushing. “How many bedrooms do you have?”

“Two,” Sirius replied as he glanced over his shoulder at said bedrooms. “I was thinking one could be Harry’s.”

Remus inclined his head in agreement. “Then I suppose the girls can have the other room—”

“What? No,” Sirius protested, shaking his head furiously. “I’m not giving up my bed Moony.”

“You are such a gentleman Black,” Paige remarked sarcastically, causing the man to snort. “Forgive me for not wanting to give my nice warm bed—that _I_ paid for—to a woman who continuously criticizes me.”

“Well, maybe if you didn’t do things worthy of my criticism…”

“Alright, enough,” Hermione exclaimed sharply as Sirius opened his mouth to shoot back a reply. “We’re all going to be living together so we’re going to have to work together and learn to get along.”

“You,” she pointed at Sirius who stared stubbornly at her. “Need to grow up a little and you,” she turned her gaze to Paige who looked abashed. “Need to stop provoking him.”

Paige let out a sigh, knowing her best friend was right. She turned to look at Sirius. “I’m sorry Black—Sirius.”

Sirius stared at her for a few minutes, something she couldn’t read flashing in his eyes before he slowly held out his hand. “I’m sorry too Paige, truce?”

She grasped his hand and shook. “Truce,”

“Now that _that’s_ settled,” Remus noted in an amused tone. “We should probably head to bed.”

“I feel like we’re going to have a long day tomorrow.”

* * *

 

“Hermione, are you awake?”

Hermione let out a low groan, bringing her arm up to her forehead. “Yes, unfortunately,”

Paige slowly lifted herself up, looking over at her friend and stating in a quiet tone, “We should probably start creating our plan.”

She watched her friend nod slowly before removing her arm. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

Hermione then sat up, glancing over at the crib where Harry slept peacefully before turning to look at Paige. “Obviously the main thing we have to do is find the horcruxes,”

Hermione stood up as she said this, conjuring a blackboard. She pointed at it with her wand and ‘find horcruxes’ appeared on it.

“On the bright side, we actually know what we’re looking for this time,” Paige noted as she put the names of the horcruxes under what Hermione had written.

She suddenly stiffened, causing Hermione to frown at her in worry until she saw her friend glance over at Harry.

“I don’t want him to have to go through what I went through,”

Paige stated in a quiet tone, causing Hermione to sigh in agreement. The brilliant witch pursed her lips in thought, before adding ‘Harry’ to the list of horcruxes and then ‘find possible rituals to remove horcrux’.

“It’s a long shot,” she admitted, looking at Paige. “But maybe there’s something,”

Paige nodded, briefly wrestling with herself before sighing. Hermione watched in confusion as the words ‘reform the Ministry’ appeared on the blackboard.

“Paige…” Hermione said in a warning tone similar to the one she used whenever Paige got an idea she (Hermione) found particularly ridiculous.

Paige rolled her eyes. “Our main goal is to stop Voldemort, right?” at Hermione’s nod she continued. “But we can’t just find his horcruxes and destroy him, we need to weaken his power base and reforming the Ministry is the best way to do that,”

“But how are we going to do that?” Hermione questioned, making a frustrated gesture. “This isn’t like our world where we’re war heroes Paige, we’re unknown here, we have no influence,”

“I’m the cousin of James Potter and the guardian of the Boy Who Lived,” Paige pointed out. “Surely that must give me _some_ notoriety?”

“Come on Mione, both you and I were active in the reforms back in our world, who better to do it than us?”

The brunette muggleborn opened her mouth to argue but closed it with a sigh as she realized her friend may have a point. “Alright, so we need to find a way to get into the Ministry.”

Hermione added that to the blackboard and stared at the list they had made. “Well, that sounds easy enough.”

Paige couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh because really, that was an understatement if she had ever heard one.

Nothing was ever easy for Paige Potter in her universe, and she doubted it would be different in this universe.

* * *

 

“Where did that blackboard come from?”

Was the first thing out of Remus’s mouth as he stood in Sirius’s kitchen, staring at the two women who looked at him with sheepish expressions.

He was very pointedly ignoring the fact that Hermione was wearing one of his shirts and said shirt didn’t really reach her knees because it was _way_ too early in the morning for his mind to go that route.

Glancing over at Sirius he couldn’t help but smirk when he saw his friend was probably avoiding the very same thoughts as he looked at Paige.

“This,” Paige began, gesturing at the board. “Is our plan to defeat Voldemort.”

“I’m sorry, did you just say your plan to defeat Voldemort?”

Sirius was very sure he was experiencing hearing loss because surely she didn't just say—

“Yup.”

Okay, apparently, he heard her right. “You do realize he’s dead, right?”

Remus let out a slight groan as he watched Paige’s eyes narrow, and here he thought they would actually abide by their truce.

Hermione cleared her throat. “If you look at the board, I’m sure you’ll see that he isn’t quite gone.”

Humoring them Sirius walked over to the board and Remus watched the color drain from his face as he whipped around to face the women and hiss, “Voldemort made horcruxes?”

Paige nodded, her face looking especially grim. “In our world, he had seven, however at the moment he only has six,”

Sirius ran a hand through his hair and Paige was ignoring the little voice inside her that whispered how attractive he looked in that moment. She succeeded, slightly.

The doglike marauder glanced at the board again and froze when he saw Harry under the list of horcruxes.

He turned to open his mouth and demand why his godson was there when said boy suddenly began making noise.

“I’ll go get him,” Paige declared, sweeping past Sirius and heading into the bedroom.

Sirius watched her go before turning to Hermione who held up her hand. “In our world Paige was a horcrux, we’re not sure how much of this world is different from our own, but there is still a chance Harry is one.”

Remus decided to enter the conversation at this point. “I’ve heard of some Japanese rituals that can cleanse dark magic and a few Native American ones as well, I can research them further.”

“That would be good, I can help as well,” Hermione suggested, giving Remus a smile that he returned, albeit weakly.

At that moment Paige entered the kitchen with Harry in her arms, who was looking rather grumpy. Sirius immediately stood up and went to take Harry from her, which she did without hesitating as she understood why he wanted to hold him.

She noticed him staring intently at Harry before he quietly asked, “it’s his scar, isn’t it?” as he gently rubbed his thumb over the mark.

Paige nodded and watched Sirius let out a heavy sigh, his face a jumble of emotions before a smile appeared on his face. “Come on Pup, let’s get you some food.”

He then threw Harry up in the air and caught him, causing the boy to burst into giggles as his godfather placed him into his highchair.

Sirius then turned to look at Paige, who was pointedly trying to not look like she had been watching him. “I also noticed you had reform the ministry on your plan to defeat Voldemort.”

Paige raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes, because many of Voldemort’s supporters have influence with the ministry, we need the same in order to weaken his power base.”

Sirius scowled. “That’s too—”

“Slytherin?” Paige suggested sweetly. “Yes, it is, but then again I was _almost_ sorted into Slytherin.”

“You were almost sorted into Slytherin?”

Paige rolled her eyes when she heard the disbelief in Sirius’s tone. “Yes, I was almost sorted into Slytherin, likely because I had to be cunning when dealing with my relatives.”

“Not all Slytherins are bad,” She continued, nailing Sirius with a sharp look that had him taken aback. “There are good Slytherins, you’ve just never bothered to try and find them.”

Sirius opened his mouth to protest but let out a yelp when Remus pointedly kicked him, glaring at his best friend before grumbling under his breath and turning his attention to his godson.

Remus cleared his throat. “So, how exactly do you plan to reform the Ministry?”

Hermione and Paige shared a look before Hermione began speaking. “First we need to try and remove the favoritism of purebloods,”

“Then we need to try and build unity with the different Houses,” Paige continued, adding the two points to the blackboard while being oblivious to the stares Remus and Sirius were giving them.

“Next is equal rights for magical races and common sense when dealing with magical creatures, as well as equal rights for witches and wizards with dual heritage or a condition,” Hermione met Remus’s gaze and the werewolf realized with a jolt that she was referring to werewolves and he felt something warm form in his chest.

“We also are looking for an improved relationship with the muggle government, as well as the international wizarding communities,” Paige stated as she pointed her wand at the blackboard again.

“We want to respect wizarding culture and traditions,” Hermione insisted. “But we also want the Ministry to recognize that innovation and progress is not a detriment to it, but instead would only benefit it.”

“In the end, our goal is to create a Ministry where we can not only stop Voldemort, but prevent others like him from ever rising.”

Paige finished, staring at the two wizards who, quite frankly, looked rather stunned. “You can speak now, if you want to,”

She stated in an amused tone as she watched the two Marauders gather themselves. Remus was the first one to speak, remarking in a rather dry tone, “well, that’s certainly a plan.”

“You do realize you’re going to face a lot of opposition, particularly from the old pureblood faction, right?”

Sirius informed them, though his expression was not one of skepticism but of approval. Paige couldn’t help but flush at the look on his face.

“We know,” Hermione replied, letting out a loud sigh. “But we’re still going to do it.”

Paige nodded, a grin appearing on her face that instantly reminded Remus and Sirius of James and knocked the breath out of them.

“We’re going to be causing a little bit of mischief and chaos to get the Ministry to listen to us because we’re not going to let it stay the same.”

_Well,_ Sirius thought as a similar grin stretched across his face, _this will certainly be interesting_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really short, but it's really just showing the beginnings of Paige and Hermione's plotting.
> 
> Next chapter will have a different type of plan as the group begins the arrangements for James and Lily's funeral. Also, Minerva makes an appearance as does some special guests.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!


	4. Familiar Faces and Will Readings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paige, Hermione and Sirius go shopping for funeral robes, run into people Paige and Hermione expected and didn't expect to see and attend a will reading that contains more questions than answers.
> 
> Oh, and Hedwig and Crookshanks make their grand entrance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a lot longer than it was supposed to be, but I'm not complaining

“Remind me again why we’re doing this?”

Paige questioned, shooting Sirius a dark look when she saw him smirking at her discomfort.

“Because love,” Sirius replied, grinning when he saw the glare Paige shot him, “You need good robes, especially for the funeral.”

“It makes sense Paige,” Hermione stated dryly from where she was being fitted for her own robes. “We didn’t exactly come here with suitcases or anything.”

Paige huffed, but conceded the point and turned her attention to the mirror. She had to admit, the robes she was wearing _did_ look very nice.

The robes were made of a black beaded fabric with a high neck and a shawl that draped over her shoulders and would cover her head.

Hermione’s robes, on the other hand, had a high neck with a belt wrapped around the middle and wide sleeves.

Other robes had been made for them as well, though Hermione and Paige both knew they would have to go shopping in the muggle world sometime.

Madam Malkin clapped her hands together, with an expression of what could only be described as pure joy on her face as she proclaimed, “Oh, don’t you two look lovely?”

Paige leaned over to whisper to Sirius as the witch continued to chatter on about fabrics, “she does realize we’re going to a funeral, right?”

Sirius chuckled, a mournful expression crossing his face briefly before vanishing. “It’s just the way she is: doesn’t matter the event, in her mind, every witch and wizard should be dressed in their absolute best.”

Paige frowned and opened her mouth to make another comment but thought better of it and closed it. She and Hermione went behind the curtains to change back into what they had been wearing.

The two of them exited the changing rooms just as Madam Malkin was explaining to Sirius in a gentle tone that she would have the robes ready in time for the funeral, which would be held in a week.

Sirius nodded, bringing her hand up to kiss and winking at her which made the older woman blush and giggle. Paige rolled her eyes and quickly walked out the door.

She let out a deep sigh as soon as she exited the shop, grateful now that she was free from the stifling air.

“So, where to next?” Hermione asked, glancing at her two companions. Sirius opened his mouth to reply when a sudden cry caused all three of them to stiffen.

“Sirius!”

Instantly Paige and Hermione had drawn their wands, scanning the area for whatever threat was approaching only to freeze when they saw a woman with a round face and short hair hurrying over to them with a man trailing behind.

“Alice?” Sirius questioned, eyes wide as he was suddenly tackled by the woman who immediately began rambling. “I’m so sorry, we’ve only just heard about the news, I can’t believe the Ministry actually thought you would ever even _think_ about betraying James and Lily—”

“Alice,” the man, who Paige and Hermione realize is Frank Longbottom, said in a soft tone. Alice flushed in embarrassment when she realized Sirius wasn’t alone and turned to give the two witches a gentle smile.

“Sorry about that, Alice Longbottom, it’s nice to meet you.”

She held out her hand but Paige just stared at it, her mind whirling as she tried to process the fact that she was staring at Neville Longbottom’s mother, not lying in a bed in St. Mungo’s with grey hair after being tortured into insanity, but standing before her with a smile.

Paige feels something nudge her and turns to see Hermione giving her a look as she gestured at the now confused Alice.

Paige feels her cheeks turn pink and can feel Sirius’s eyes on her as she took the woman’s hand. “I’m Paige Potter, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“And I’m Hermione Granger,” Hermione adds as she shakes Frank’s hands.

“I’m Frank Longbottom,” Frank said with a smile and while Paige knew that people said Neville resembled Alice the most, she could see a bit of him in Frank’s smile.

“So, you’re James’s mysterious cousin that he never told anyone about,” Alice remarked dryly, causing Frank to let out a groan as he covered his face with his hands. “What? You know you were thinking it too Frank!”

Paige couldn’t help but chuckle, noting how different the female Auror was from her son. “Yes, I am,” she replied.

“And you would be…?”

Alice raised an eyebrow in question as she looked at Hermione, who opened her mouth to respond only to be cut off by Paige throwing her arm over her shoulders. “She’s been my best friend since I was eleven, incredibly brilliant and always willing to get me out of trouble.”

“So, basically, she’s your Remus,” Frank suggested with a grin, causing Hermione to laugh. “Yes, that seems to be the right description.”

Paige noticed Alice staring at her and cleared her throat. “Is there something you want to ask Mrs. Longbottom?”

Alice turned pink when she realized she had been caught. “Sorry, it’s just…your eyes, they remind me of Lily’s.”

Feeling herself begin to panic Paige turned to Hermione only to see the muggleborn witch give her a wide-eyed stare.

To everyone’s surprise, it was Sirius who chose to speak up. “Apparently it’s a thing in the Potter family to fall for women with green eyes.”

He winked at Paige who let out a sigh and gave him a grateful smile that made his stomach do a funny flip, which he quickly pushed away.

“Was your mother also muggleborn?” Frank asked curiously as he looked at Paige.

She nodded, silently thanking Dumbledore for helping her quickly come up with a fake background for herself and Hermione—and also providing the paperwork to back the story up.

“It was love at first sight like I heard it was for James and Lily, though unlike them my parents got together a lot earlier,” she joked, causing Alice and Frank to laugh as Lily’s hatred for James was infamous.

“Originally I was going to go to Hogwarts, but my mother was afraid about everything going on with Vol—You-Know-Who and decided to homeschool me.”

“Your mother is a smart woman,” Alice remarked softly and Paige cleared her throat. “She was,”

Perhaps sensing the turn the conversation was taking Frank turned to Hermione and asked, “So how did you meet Paige?”

Hermione opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by Paige chiming in with, “She turned all my stuffed animals into frogs.”

The muggleborn witch turned to give her friend a glare as the other three chuckled. “Yes, well, obviously my parents were concerned with what their daughter had just done, so Paige’s parents decided to explain everything to them.”

Paige nodded, her grin softening. “And then they agreed to homeschool Hermione because her parents also weren’t too sure with sending her to Hogwarts.”

“And thus, you became best friends,” Alice finished with a bright grin.

Hermione and Paige chuckled, turning to give each other bright smiles. “Thus, we became best friends,” Paige agreed and felt her cheeks flush when she saw Sirius grinning at her.

Frank cleared his throat, reaching out to put his arm around his wife. “Apologies, but we really should be getting back; my mother is watching Neville.”

Sirius nodded, watching as his two companions seemed to flinch at the name. “I understand, it was good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you as well Sirius,” Alice agreed as she went to give him a hug, before turning and surprising Hermione and Paige by giving them hugs as well. “We should have dinner sometime.”

With that statement the Longbottoms left, leaving the group standing there. Sirius turned to see Paige staring after the couple with an unreadable look.

“Mind explaining to me why you have that expression, love?”

Paige blinked and turned to the man, opening her mouth to respond before closing it and shaking her head. “Not here, when we get back to the flat.”

Hermione nodded her agreement and Sirius didn’t really want to argue with them so he simply put his hand on Paige’s back and led the girls towards Gringotts

He was unaware of Paige’s face turning red and shooting glares at her friend who was smirking at her.

* * *

 

“Hello, we’re here for the reading for the will of James and Lily Potter?”

Paige asked the bank teller, sounding rather disorientated.

That didn’t surprise Sirius since he recalled their surprise when learning that James and Lily had a will: from the way it sounded, it didn’t seem like they had one in their world.

He supposed that made sense, considering he knew for a fact his James had a list of suitable guardians in the will and the Dursleys were not on it.

Then again, if what Paige said about Harry having to be housed with blood relatives, it’s possible even if _there_ was a will Dumbledore might have ignored it anyways…

Sirius shook his head, not wanting to go down that path as he joined Paige in following the goblin—Ragrod, he believed their name was—into a backroom while Hermione waited outside as she was neither Harry’s guardian nor someone named in the will

“Don’t worry,” she responded cheerfully. “I promise not to try and steal a dragon,”

Sirius had no idea what _that_ meant, but Paige did if her nearly falling over with laughter indicated.

“Mr. Black,”

Paige heard a familiar Scottish drawl and watched as the blood drained from Sirius’s face, the two of them turning to see Minerva McGonagall making her way over with her familiar stern expression.

“Minnie, how lovely to see you,” Sirius replied, though Paige heard a bit of nervousness in his tone.

The professor took another step towards him and Paige saw him flinch, bracing himself for something.

He was taken aback when the normally stoic Professor pulled him into a hug. “I’m sorry for ever thinking you could betray James and Lily.”

Sirius blinked before letting out a low chuckle. “Minnie, I didn’t know you cared,” he stated with a grin.

She shot him a glare as she pulled back, letting out a sniff before turning to face Paige. “You must be James’s cousin,”

Paige nodded, holding out her hand for the woman to face. “Yes, it’s nice to meet you, I’ve heard so much about you,”

She saw McGonagall stare at her as she shook her hand, the woman shaking her head as she released it. “I’m sorry, it’s just—”

“I know,” Paige cut her off, giving her a gentle smile. “My eyes, I’ve heard it before.”

The woman nodded stiffly, clearing her throat. “Well, I think we’ve kept everyone waiting long enough.”

The trio headed over to the table where Ragrod was giving them an impatient look while Amelia was looking through a file. There was another woman with blonde hair loosely pinned up that looked vaguely familiar to Paige.

“Amelia, what are you doing here?”

Sirius questioned, raising an eyebrow as he took a seat. Paige took the one beside him while McGonagall took the one across.

“Given the…details,” Amelia replied delicately, “It was requested that a law enforcement official be here for the reading and given recent circumstances, it was agreed that Mr. Crouch shouldn’t come.”

Paige watched as Sirius tightened his hand into a fist. She instinctively reached out to put her hand over it causing him to give her an unreadable look before his fist loosened.

“Shall we begin?”

At their nods, Ragrod continued as he brought out the will, “first please state your name,”

“Sirius Black, also representing Remus Lupin”

“Minerva McGonagall,”

“Marlene McKinnon,” _That_ got Paige’s attention as she turned to stare at the blonde woman in disbelief: wasn’t she supposed to be dead?

“Paige Potter,”

Ragrod nodded, beginning to read out the will. “First things first, Sirius Black is given a bequeath of one hundred thousand galleons: do you accept this?”

Paige saw his throat tighten as he replied hoarsely, “I do,”

“Remus Lupin is given a bequeath of one hundred thousand galleons, do you accept this on his behalf Mr. Black?”

Sirius blinked, clearly struggling with himself: while Remus had suspected James and Lily might have left him something it had never been a sure thing.

The idea of being given money was something Remus would have balked at, but at the same time, Sirius knew he needed it.

He let out a sigh. “I accept it on his behalf.”

_Moony can kill me later_

“Marlene McKinnon is to be given a sum of two hundred thousand galleons, do you accept?”

Paige could see the tears in Marlene’s eyes as she replied yes. She realized with sadness that, if Marlene was alive, she was likely the only living member of her family.

Ragrod nodded, flipping over the paper. “Paige Potter is to receive a sum of five hundred thousand galleons, as is Hermione Granger, as well as full control over the Potter financials—”

“I’m sorry, what?”

Sirius and Paige asked at the same time, gaping at the goblin who gave them an annoyed look. “Is there a problem?”

Paige felt herself turn red when she saw the other three witches in the room give her a look. “Forgive me, Ragrod, but could I possibly see the will?”

He gave her a cold look before sliding the will over to her. She began scanning the paper with Sirius looking over her shoulder and froze when her gaze landed on a particular paragraph:

_To my darling cousin Paige (or as I like to call her, Angel), we leave her and her friend Hermione Granger five hundred thousand galleons each and, as she is the only living Potter besides Harry, request she be put in charge of our estate until Harry comes of age unless she is unable to, in which case control goes to Harry’s guardian._

Paige slowly put down the paper and slid it back to Ragrod, ignoring Sirius’s mutter of “Angel?” from behind her. Her hands were shaking as she tried to wrap her head around what she had just read.

_How_ was she in the will? Yes, Dumbledore had forged papers for her and Hermione, but those had been recent; surely there was no _actual_ Paige Potter…?

“May I continue?”

Ragrod questioned, sounding very annoyed. Paige and Sirius both nodded and he continued, “there is also a bequeath to Lily’s sister, which will be handled via muggle solicitors, and a bequeath to Peter Pettigrew—”

“—Which, for obvious reasons, won’t be going through,” Amelia interrupted. Paige could feel Sirius tense up beside her and she reached out to take his hand again, feeling him squeeze once before letting go.

“Finally, there are two donations: one to Hogwarts, which is why you were asked to come to the reading Professor McGonagall, and one to the DMLE.”

Amelia and McGonagall both raised an eyebrow.

“Funds have been set aside to start a Muggleborn Sponsorship Program, with the intent of helping Muggleborns and their families adjust to the magical world; included within it are separate funds for scholarships to those in need.”

Paige turned to Sirius who didn’t seem surprised. Catching her look he leaned in and whispered, “Lily always talked about how there was no real support for Muggleborns and their families, she always wanted to do something about it.”

Paige nodded, turning her attention back to Ragrod. “…for the DMLE, a donation has been made to the department itself as well as funds to create the James Potter Trust, designed to help the victims of crimes and their families.”

Amelia nodded, speaking in a rather hoarse voice, “I shouldn’t be surprised, James has always been rather passionate about the DMLE.”

Minerva, who looked rather misty-eyed, inclined her head. “And Lily often said she wanted to give back to Hogwarts.”

Ragrod raised an eyebrow. “I assume the two of you accept then?”

The two witches nodded. “Yes.”

“Then the only thing left is the matter of Harry’s guardianship,” the goblin looked over at Sirius. “I assume, Mr. Black, you are Harry’s guardian?”

“We both are,” Sirius replied, gesturing to Paige beside him.

Ragrod nodded, clearly not caring as much as he folded up the will. “I will get you the keys to the vault Miss Potter, as well as the details for the financial records if you would follow me?”

Paige nodded, feeling rather shaky on her legs as she stood and followed the goblin, leaving Sirius to wait as the other occupants began leaving.

He turned to see Marlene making her way over, wiping her eyes furiously as she gave him a weak smile.

“Hey Marlene,” Sirius greeted her gently, giving her a worried look. “How are you?”

“I’m fine, really, just…” she shook her head. “I can’t believe James and Lily would give me so much.”

“They both know how hard it’s been for you since, well, you know,” Sirius stated, referring to her family’s death.

Marlene nodded, glancing over her shoulder at Paige who was listening to Ragrod as he began handing her documents. “So, that’s James’ cousin?”

Sirius smiled. “Yes, that’s Paige.”

The witch turned back to look at him, her mouth turning up in a slight smirk. “She’s pretty,”

Sirius nodded absently before realizing what she just said and doing a double-take. “What exactly are you implying?”

He watched the blonde shrug. “Nothing, just, you are going to be living together right?”

“And…?” Sirius asked, almost afraid of what answer he was going to get. Marlene raised an eyebrow. “I know you, Sirius, you’ve never been one to turn down the company of a pretty woman.”

“When said woman is James’ cousin, I would.”

_Not to mention that she’s also James’ daughter_ , Sirius thought to himself as he watched Paige finish her conversation with Ragrod, turning to say goodbye to Amelia and McGonagall—when did they walk over to her?—before she made her way over to him.

“Are we ready to go?” Sirius asked her.

Paige nodded, turning to give Marlene a warm smile. “You’re Marlene, right?”

The witch stared at her for a few minutes before shaking her head. “Yes, I am,” she replied before shaking the hand offered to her. “Sorry, it’s just—”

“I know,” Paige cut in, gesturing at her face. “My eyes.”

Marlene let out a soft laugh, fidgeting with her robes for a moment before she gave her a soft smile. “I suppose I’ll see you at the funeral then,”

Paige winced before nodding, causing Marlene to let out a heavy sigh. “Goodbye, then.”

The blonde witch turned and left, her robes fluttering behind her. Paige stared after her for a few minutes before turning to Sirius, managing a weak smile. “Shall we go find Hermione then?”

Sirius nodded, absently reaching up to put his hand on her back before Marlene’s words came back to it and he hastily put it down.

Paige gave him an odd look before she walked out of the room, Sirius trailing behind her as they headed over to where Hermione was glancing around nervously.

She saw them and quickly hurried over to them. “What happened?”

Paige let out a snort. “A lot, I’ll explain on the way.”

The trio exited the bank and began their walk back to the Leaky Cauldron while Paige explained to Hermione what had happened.

The muggleborn witch’s eyes had gotten wider and wider until she finally blurted out, “What the bloody hell?”

Paige chuckled. “ _That_ was pretty much my reaction,” she remarked dryly.

“I’m sorry, it’s just…” Hermione shook her head. “How are we in the will? We didn’t even _exist_ until a few days ago.”

She paused, glancing at Paige as she asked in a low tone, “Do you think Dumbledore somehow—”

But her line of thought was immediately cut off by Sirius, who vehemently shook his head. “No, not even Dumbledore would be able to alter the will, only James and Lily could.”

“So, what, are you saying they somehow foresaw me and Hermione ending up here and decided to help us out?”

Paige questioned, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. She pointedly ignored Hermione muttering about “bloody Divination”.

Sirius let out a loud groan, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t know, honestly this whole thing confuses me as much as it does you.”

A silence settled over the group as they continued their walk. The silence was broken by Paige asking, “so, Marlene McKinnon was a friend of James and Lily?”

Paige watched out of the corner of her eye as Hermione stopped, turning to give her an incredulous look.

Sirius saw this reaction as well and narrowed her eyes, “Yes, her and Lily were roommates…”

He trailed off as he took in the expressions of the two witches, recognizing it as the same look they had when interacting with Frank and Alice.

“How did she survive the attack?”

Paige’s question was quiet, but Sirius heard it well enough and his first thought was how did she know about the attack.

Then he remembered who she and Hermione were and a sense of dread settled in his stomach.

“She was visiting a friend when the attack happened, she came back right in the middle of it and was able to fight them off until the Aurors arrived.”

Paige and Hermione shared another look and Sirius decided that was another thing he would ask them about when they got back.

The trio passed _Eeylops Owl Emporium_ and _Magical Menagerie,_ and the witches suddenly stopped and looked back at the shops.

Sirius watched them and asked with a teasing grin, “Would you like to go in?”

The two witches shared a look before they turned to him and nodded.

When they came back out a few minutes later, Paige had a cage with a familiar snowy owl while Hermione was holding a big orange cat.

* * *

 

Remus quickly closed the book he was reading when he heard the sound of the floo, trying not to be obvious as he hurried towards the fireplace where Sirius, Paige and Hermione were now exiting with Hedwig and Crookshanks.

“You took a lot longer than expected,” Remus remarked, trying to sound casual as he watched the girls put down their pets.

Sirius grinned. “Why Mooney, did you miss us that much?” He waggled his eyebrows at his friend causing the man to roll his eyes.

“Actually, I was thinking how nice it would be to have the house to myself,” Remus stated dryly causing the Black heir to sputter and Hermione to giggle at the man’s reaction.

_She sounds cute when she laughs_

Remus blinked at the thought that suddenly passed through his mind and quickly shook his head to remove it, clearing his throat to alleviate the pinkness he was sure appeared on his cheeks.

“In all seriousness, why _did_ it take so long for you guys to come back,” Remus questioned, a serious look in his eyes. “I know you hate getting fitted Sirius, and will readings certainly take a little while, but surely you wouldn’t want to take longer than you need to?”

“We ran into Alice and Frank, speaking of which…” Sirius turned to the two witches, raising an eyebrow. “I believe you owe me an explanation as to why you looked like you saw a ghost when you saw them.”

Remus watched Hermione and Paige shared a look, silently conversing with their eyes before Hermione spoke, clearly trying to soften her tone. “Because when we met them, they might as well have been ghosts.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Sirius demanded, eyes wide in shock. Remus imagined his own expression wasn’t that different.

“It was long after Voldemort’s fall, when everyone thought they were safe,” Paige explained, her green eyes glazing over as if lost in memories. “The Lestranges managed to escape being convicted and wanted to find their master, hoping to bring him back, and so they went after the Longbottoms.”

Sirius let out a sharp intake of breath, being aware of how vicious his cousin, her husband and brother-in-law could be.

 He almost didn’t want to ask but…

“They killed them?”

Hermione shook her head, brown curls brushing her shoulders as she let out a bitter laugh. “No, though they might as well have,”

She met both of them with a serious gaze and stated, “they tortured them into insanity.”

A beat passed as the last two Marauders stared at her. Remus didn’t have to turn to know the mixture of anger, grief and shame that would be present on his friend’s face.

Anger at his family for what they did, grief for the loss of Alice and Frank and shame because it was _his_ family that caused it.

“Don’t,”

The word came out softly, yet managed to sound like a firm order as Paige stared pointedly at Sirius. “It’s not your fault, your family—and I’m using that term _very_ loosely—made their own choices,”

“What they did has nothing at all to do with you.”

Sirius let out a bark of laughter, running his hand through his hair before he met her steady gaze with a small smirk. “You’re definitely James’s daughter alright,”

Paige returned the gesture. “I know,”

The two of them stared at each other, Paige struck by how warm his eyes were…

“Well,” Remus cleared his throat, causing the two to quickly look away from each other. “I assume you don’t intend to let that happen in this timeline.”

Paige nodded, a look of determination in her eyes. “We’ll probably send an anonymous tip to the Aurors.”

“You could just tell Amelia directly,” Sirius pointed out with a grin. “After all, you two seemed to get along—speaking of which, what were she and Minnie talking to you about?”

Paige ignored the scandalized noises Hermione made at Sirius’s casual nickname for the Head of Gryffindor as she replied, “since I’m in charge of the Potter estate, both of them need me to inspect how the funds are being used, making sure they’re being used appropriately and stuff like that.”

Remus nodded. “That makes sense,” he remarked dryly as he glanced down to see Crookshanks rubbing his head against his leg.

“Hello,” he muttered, crouching down to scratch the cat on his head. “I see you brought some animals home.”

“That’s Crookshanks,” Hermione replied with a smile as the cat strolled over to his new mistress. “I was so surprised to see him in the pet shop, I didn’t realize how old he was.”

“So, you had him in your world too?”

Hermione nodded, glancing over her shoulder at Paige who was stroking Hedwig’s feathers. “Paige had Hedwig too.”

“I don’t see why anyone would buy that cat…” Sirius muttered under his breath as he held out his hand to Hedwig, who affectionately nipped it.

Paige elbowed him and gave him a look, causing him to grumble as he rubbed his side.

He stopped, however, and turned to Paige to ask in a quiet voice, “Marlene was there when her family was attacked in your world, wasn’t she?”

The dark-haired witch didn’t say anything, but the way she pointedly ignored his gaze told him everything.

Paige turned and saw Hermione looking at her and the two of them shared a silent conversation: there were a lot more questions they needed to find answers to, and a lot more things they needed to do.

After all, they decided to save as many people as possible and that was one thing they planned to succeed.

“I’m going to check on Harry,” Paige said, heading over to the bedroom.

Sirius and Remus shared a look before Sirius went to follow her. He found her leaning in the doorway, a small smile on her face as she watched Harry snooze soundly in his crib.

“It’s odd,” he heard her mutter and he looked at her expectantly. “To see people who I’ve known to be dead—or close to it, I suppose—alive and well.”

“I imagine it would be,” Sirius agreed in a soft voice, causing her to look at him with a gentle smile.

The Marauder became aware of how little space there was between them and quickly turned his head to look at his godson.

“So, Angel huh?”

Paige stiffened, turning her head to give the grinning man a death glare. “I swear to Merlin Black if you even think about _using_ it…”

“I wouldn’t dare,” Sirius paused before his grin became wider. “ _Angel_.”

Remus and Hermione jumped when they heard a loud yell and then a _thump_ as they hurried to the bedroom, blinking when they saw Sirius lying on the floor with an elephant nose while a proud Paige twirled her wand.

The two bookworms let out a heavy sigh and shared a look before Remus went to fix his friend’s nose while Hermione went to calm her sister down.

Well, at least she didn’t kill him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasps* I'm alive! (mostly...)
> 
> Sorry for the long wait, but I had final assignments and then finals themselves (one of which was a twelve-page paper) so I was a little busy but I am officially on Christmas break and have time to write.
> 
> This chapter is probably longer than the other chapters in this story, but there was a lot of information I needed to add so yeah
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy! Next chapter will be solemn as it is the actual funeral plus someone mysterious arrives to help Paige and Hermione with their goals.


	5. The Potter Funeral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The funeral happens and it's a constant emotional rollercoaster
> 
> Also, Sirius gets drunk, has a run in with someone he never expected to see again and he and Paige become fluster by each other, not neccesarily in that order

Sirius’s eyes shot open and he immediately sat up, breathing heavily as he felt his heartbeat slowly return to normal.

He groaned, running a hand down his face as images passed through his mind before throwing the covers off. There was no way he’d been getting back to sleep.

The hardwood of his floors were cool on his feet as he quietly left his room, careful not to wake Remus who he can see snoozing on his old couch.

A frown appeared on his face when he saw light coming from his kitchen, curious he slowly made his way over and paused in the doorway at what he saw.

Paige was seated at the kitchen table, various papers scattered about as she stared at one page with an intense look on her face.

Her curls were held up with a claw clip, a few strands hanging loose and framing her face. An oversized sweater—that Sirius knew was his because neither her or Hermione had been able to go shopping for muggle clothes—hung loosely over her frame.

Sirius’s first thought was that she looked oddly cute, but what came out of his mouth was:

“You look bloody horrible.”

Paige jumped, the papers flying onto the floor as she pointed her wand at him. When she realized it was just Sirius, who had raised his hands in an ‘I surrender’ gesture, she slowly lowered her wand as her heartbeat returned to normal.

“Such a charmer, aren’t you?” she said dryly. “What are you doing up so late?”

“I could ask you the same question,” Sirius retorted, bending down to pick up the papers which were immediately snatched away by Paige.

“They’re the Potter financial records,” she explained when she saw his look. “I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to just go through them.”

“Why can’t you sleep?”

Sirius frowned, taking in the dark bags under her eyes. Paige huffed, looking away from his gaze. “I just can’t, ok?”

Sirius opened his mouth to make a comment but stopped himself when he saw the expression on her face; it wasn’t that unlike the expression he was sure was on his face.

Without making another sound he pulled the chair out beside her and sat down. “So, what are you looking at?”

He asked, changing the subject. Paige gave him a grateful smile. “Mainly the details for getting the sponsorship program and trust up and running, I’m planning to meet them sometime after the funeral.”

Her smile faded as soon as she brought up the funeral, quickly averting her gaze. Sirius scrutinized her face and opened his big mouth:

“Are you crying?”

Sirius winced when he realized how tactless he sounded as Paige whirled around to give him an angry look. “I’m about to attend the funeral of my parents, plus I am still dealing with my own grief from losing friends, I think I’m allowed to cry.”

She said furiously, glaring at the Black heir. Sirius held up his hands. “Hey, I’m sorry alright? I didn’t think before I spoke,”

He hesitated before he reached out to pull her into a hug, trying desperately to not think about how warm she felt against his chest.

Paige was thinking the same thing, feeling her face turn red as she returned the hug. It didn’t help that her mind chose that moment to point out he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

The two of them stood like that for a while before a cough caused them to jump apart. “I’m pleased to see the two of you getting along,”

Paige’s cheeks turned redder if that was possible when she saw Remus poking his head over the couch with a cheeky grin. “How long have you been awake?”

“Since Padfoot put his foot in his mouth.”

Sirius growled at his friend, which made Paige shiver as he was still standing next to her. “Shut up Moony.”

A loud piercing wail and the sounds of someone muttering made Paige whisper thanks to whatever god decided to get her out of this awkward situation.

“That’s Harry, I’ll go get him.”

She quickly rushed into the room, leaving Remus to smirk at Sirius who’s face seemed to be getting suspiciously pinker. “So Padfoot…”

“Not. Another. Word.”

* * *

 

Hermione let out a sigh as she stared at herself in the mirror, fixing her robes for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

She hated funeral robes, but unfortunately, she had to become used to them rather quickly.

Hearing a giggle, she turned and smiled when she saw Harry, dressed in his own robes and playing with a stuffed dog on the bed.

“Hello Harry,” she cooed, sitting down on the bed beside him. “Do you like your dog?”

“Pafoo!”

Harry exclaimed, thrusting the dog at her and forcing Hermione to quickly move back to avoid being hit in the face.

“James made it as a joke,” Hermione forced herself not to react as she turned her head to see Remus leaning on the doorway. “But of course, it became Harry’s favorite toy.”

“Of course,” she agreed, a small smile forming on her lips.

Remus made his way over, taking a seat on the other side of Harry and watched the boy babble. “So, what exactly happened between Paige and Sirius this morning?”

Hermione inquired, not worrying about either party finding out as they had left to gone grocery shopping (both her and Remus were confident that they could make it through without murdering each other, hopefully).

Remus snorted as he recalled the scene. “The only thing I’m going to say is that Sirius and Paige might not be fighting so much anymore.”

The front door opened, cutting off Hermione’s response as the sounds of an argument flooded in.

She raised an eyebrow at the werewolf, who grinned tiredly at her. “I did say _might_.”

Letting out a huff she gathered Harry in her arms and stood, heading out of the room with Remus close behind as the argument became clearer:

“…I told you, we should have taken a left Black!”

“Well, forgive me for not wanting to take a shady shortcut!”

“It was not—”

“Alright,” Hermione cut in, sounding very done as both parties stopped their glaring contest to look at her. “Did you at least bring groceries back?”

Paige held up her bag as an answer. “We have enough to feed a small dragon.”

Remus raised an eyebrow as she began putting the groceries away. “That’s a rather oddly specific statement, why not just say a dragon?”

He didn’t miss the looks exchanged between the two witches and he let out a sigh. “This is one of those things I don’t want to know about, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

They said in unison, causing Sirius to snicker at the expression on his friend’s face.

The memory of what day it was came back to Paige and she glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall with a frown. “How early do we have to be at the graveyard?”

The mood shifted as Sirius replied, “We should probably be there for 1, since the funeral doesn’t start until 1.”

“Then we’ll have to have a quick breakfast,” Paige mused as she began pulling out the eggs. “Sirius, could you start the toast?”

Remus and Hermione expected Sirius to blow up at the perceived order, but Sirius just nodded and went to do as asked.

Hermione stood back with Remus, their lack of culinary talents making them unable to help as the dark-haired witch and wizard hustled around the kitchen.

Their meal—consisting of scrambled eggs and toast—was very good and Remus was not ashamed to admit he golfed down his food like, well, a wolf.

Paige stood, stating she was going to change into her robes as she entered her, Hermione and Harry’s room and shut the door.

Sirius stared at the door for a few minutes before he turned to Hermione, asking if he could hold Harry to which Hermione acquiesced.

The brilliant witch could tell that Sirius needed to feel Harry in his arms, the day bringing up grief he had tried to bury behind sarcastic remarks.

Her and Paige had come to an agreement that Paige would keep an eye on Sirius while Hermione would watch Remus (though secretly she also planned to keep an eye on her best friend as well).

Paige eventually exited and no one commented on her red eyes as she took Harry from Sirius so he could go change.

There were no words exchanged, no one really knowing what to say as Harry giggled in Paige’s arms.

Sirius left his room, a solemn expression on his face as he walked over to take Harry from Paige.

Remus sighed heavily as he stood, holding out a hand to Hermione with a weak smile.

“I believe it’s time to go.”

* * *

 

_I hate funerals_

Paige thought bitterly as the cold November air pierced her body, sending shivers down her spine while she adjusted Harry, who was unusually quiet.

Perhaps he sensed the solemn mood that fell over the adults.

She turned to look at Sirius, who was staring at the coffins containing the body of his best friend and his wife with a hard look.

Without hesitating, she shifted Harry so she can reach out to take his hand. He startled, turning to look at her and for a minute she thinks he might pull his hand away, the memory of the morning still fresh.

But he doesn’t, instead, he laced his palm through hers and gripped it, pulling her slightly closer to him.

Paige glanced over her shoulder at Hermione, who gave her a warm smile before she redirected her attention to Remus who wore a stony expression.

A flash of red hair caught her attention and she looked to see a red-haired man standing next to Marlene, seemingly leaning on her.

Paige is confused for a moment, because the man is definitely not Arthur Weasley and she can’t think of any other red-haired men except…

Realization floods through her and her eyes widened as she gaped at what must be one of the Prewett brothers, except it can’t be, because both of them are supposed to have been killed during an ambush.

_Yet Marlene is alive when she is supposed to be dead…_

A voice whispered in her mind and Paige can’t help but wonder what else is different in this world.

The last bits of Dumbledore’s speech reach her ears and she redirected her attention, having to let Sirius’s hand go in order to raise her wand and light it.

She doesn’t want to think about how much she missed its warmth as she watched the coffins lowered into the ground.

At that point, the ceremony is over and people begin coming up to offer their condolences.

Marlene is the first to reach them, helping her red-haired companion with a hand on his arm. “Gideon, this is Paige, James’s cousin.”

Gideon—at least she knows his name—holds out his hand with a weak smile. “It’s nice to meet you, though I suppose there are better places for us to meet.”

Despite the situation, Paige can’t help but let out a short laugh as she shook his hand. “Yes, there probably are.”

“How are you doing Gid?”

Sirius asked, looking at him with worry. “I heard you got released earlier than expected.”

Gideon let out a low chuckle. “Yeah, probably because I kept driving the Healers mad.”

He winced, leaning down to rub his leg. Marlene gave him a concerned look. “Is your leg acting up? Do you need to sit down?”

“I’m fine Marlene,” Paige could hear the slight irritation in his tone.

Marlene bit her lip but didn’t say anything as Alice and Frank made their way over. Paige was surprised when Alice pulled her in for a hug.

“How are you holding up?”

Alice asked as she pulled back, giving her a warm smile. Paige returned it. “As well as I can be.”

Alice nodded, turning to give Sirius a look as she put her hands on her hips. “What’s this I hear about you coming back to work next week?”

Sirius felt his face heat when he felt a particular pair of eyes on him. “You’re going back to work next week?”

Paige repeated in disbelief. She supposed she could appreciate his work ethic, but at the same time…

Sirius became irritated. “Look Alice, you and I both know there are still Death Eaters roaming around and the Aurors and Hit Wizards are stretched thin considering recent events.”

Frank frowned. “I’m not saying you’re not right, Sirius, but it’s a bit too soon for you to come back to work,”

“Didn’t Amelia give you a month’s leave?”

A dry voice spoke up from behind them. “I tried to, but Auror Black refused.” The group turned to see Amelia approaching with Remus and Hermione.

“In all honesty, as much as I’d like to _force_ him to take the leave,” here she gave Sirius a look that made him feel like a recruit all over again. “Unfortunately, with all the paperwork and arrests that are going to have to be made, I’m going to need every bit of help I can get.

Alice opened her mouth to make another remark only to stop and stare at something. “Frank, that isn’t who I think it is, is it?”

Frank followed her gaze and his eyes widened. “What the hell is _he_ doing here?”

“What are you two talking about?” Hermione questioned, glancing around to try and see what had them looking like Voldemort himself had just showed up.

What she saw was an old man dressed in fine robes making his way over to them, his hair neatly combed and his dark eyes calculating. There was a smile on his face that reminded Hermione of a shark.

Hermione felt Remus tense next to her and gave him a worried look before turning her attention to the man who now stood in front of Paige and Sirius who, she noticed, looked equally tense.

What happened next sent shockwaves through both witches.

“Sirius, it’s good to see you.”

“Hello, Grandfather,”

Sirius replied tersely, his eyes almost black as he stared at the man. “What are you doing here?”

“I am here to offer my condolences to Miss Potter on the loss of her cousin and his wife,” the man who Paige now knew as Arcturus Black said calmly, as if unbothered by the cold look he was being sent.

Paige tried to not flinch when he turned to look at her, his expression shifting into a sympathetic one as he held out his hand.

After a moment of hesitation, she took it and was surprised when he brought it up to kiss; she was fairly certain she heard a growl from behind her.

“Miss Potter, I am sincerely sorry for the loss of your cousin and his wife,” Arcturus said, and Paige was fairly certain he _was_ being sincere. “They were both wonderful people who will be missed,”

Paige heard a sharp intake of breath and she kept herself from reacting to his last sentence, because the Head of the Black Family, who valued pure blood above everything, had just implied Lily Potter—a muggleborn witch—was a wonderful person.

It could have just been him trying to rile them up, but something told Paige he was trying to tell her something. She just didn’t know _what_.

“Should you need any help at all,” Arcturus continued and Paige didn’t miss the way his eyes travelled to Hermione. “I am willing to offer my assistance.”

Paige managed a smile. “I shall keep that in mind, Mr. Black.”

With another sharp smile, he bowed his head slightly before he turned, his robes billowing behind him as he left.

A silence fell over the group, no one quite sure what to say after that incident. Paige could feel the tension coming off of Sirius in waves.

“Well,” Frank cut through the silence. “That was unexpected.”

Alice nodded, checking her wristwatch. “We should probably head back to Neville.”

“We should get back as well,” Marlene said, looking at Gideon who nodded.

Amelia also stated she had work to finish, and after setting a date and time to go over the trust with Paige, took her leave with the others.

Paige waved goodbye to Alice as she and Frank apparated away, leaving the quartet standing alone.

“I suppose we should head back as well,” Remus stated as he put his hands in his pocket, feeling the cold start to hit him.

“Just give me a minute,”

Remus gave Paige a confused look as she handed Harry to Sirius until he saw her making her way over to the Potter grave.

Paige bit her lip as she crouched down in front of it, tracing the engraving with her hands. “Hi Mom and Dad—no, I suppose I can’t call you that, huh?”

She let out a soft chuckle, feeling the wind flow through her hair. “Don’t worry about Harry, ok?”

“I promise he’ll know what it’s like to be loved, he won’t ever have to wonder like I did.”

With those words she stood up, turning to see Remus and Hermione giving her a soft smile while Sirius stared at her with an unreadable expression.

“I’m ready to go now.”

The group apparated back to the apartment, Paige heading into her room to change out of her robes while Hermione went into the bathroom to do the same.

When Paige stepped out of the bedroom after having changed her clothes, she immediately noticed the absence of one person.

“Where’s Sirius?”

She asked, confused as she turned to look at Remus who let out a heavy sigh as he looked down at Harry.

“He left a few minutes ago, didn’t say where he was going.”

But the expression on his face told Paige that he had his suspicions. “Let me guess, a bar?”

At his nod she grumbled, walking over to grab her outer robe. “Tell Hermione I’m going out.”

* * *

 

“Another Tom,”

Sirius ignored the bartender’s expression as he took another shot, slamming the glass down on the counter and felt his head began to buzz.

The bar was incredibly loud, with the sounds of cheers and glasses clinking reaching his ears. People were happy, the Dark Lord was defeated and his followers were being rounded up.

Why the hell should they care his defeat came at the cost of two people, whose son was now an orphan?

He heard a group say a toast to the Boy Who Lived and snorted as he picked up another drink, really that’s the best they could—

“It’s nice to see people still aren’t as creative with names in this world.”

His eyes widened and he fumbled with his glass, quickly looking away from Tom’s death glare as he turned to see a familiar dark-haired woman standing before him.

“Are you not going to offer me a drink Black?”

Paige inquired as she moved to take the seat next to him, calmly removing the glass from his hands and handing it back to Tom. “I think that’s enough for him Tom.”

She heard him sputtering. “Last time I checked Angel, you weren’t my mother.”

Paige ignored the nickname. “You’re right, because I’m not an insane hag.”

Despite his anger, Sirius couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, though the force of it combined with his increasing drunkenness nearly made him fall off his stool.

Paige caught him, giving him a worried once-over. “How many drinks _did_ you have?”

He made a wide gesture with his arm and Paige looked over to see, to her horror, at least _seven_ empty glasses.

“How the bloody hell are you not passed out?”

She watched him shrug, if you call the twitch he made that. “Ok, it’s time for you to go home.”

Grabbing his arm Paige helped him off the stool, letting him lean on her as he looked like he would fall if he took one step.

“No,” Sirius mumbled. “Need to forget…”

Paige sighed, a sympathetic smile appearing on her lips. “I know you do, but I don’t think you’re going to like the hangover in the morning.”

She paused before letting out a sigh and began digging around in the pockets of his robe to find money, since she hadn’t had the chance to take out money from Gringotts yet.

“Are you trying to feel me up love?”

Sirius’s head flopped onto her shoulder and Paige felt a shiver go down her spine when she heard him whisper into her neck. “I like it.”

The heat travelled up her neck and to her cheeks as Paige quickly handed Tom a few galleons before she began helping him to the apparition point.

They popped into the flat and Paige quickly conjured a bucket before Sirius vomited all over the floor.

Her initial goal was to get him to his bedroom, but the way he was groaning made it clear that wasn’t happening so instead she carefully laid him down on the couch.

“M’sorry…”

Paige paused from where she was crouched down next to him and turned to see him blearily looking at her.

“My fault James and Lily died…I killed them…”

It felt like her heart was breaking when she heard the despondent tone in his voice, the utter grief and guilt leaking out of it.

“No, it’s not,” she said gently but firmly. “Peter is the one who killed him.”

Sirius blinked at her before his eyes slid shut and he fell into a deep sleep. Paige sighed, a soft smile forming as she conjured a blanket and put it over him.

“He’ll be fine,”

She turned to see Remus and Hermione, the latter of whom was holding Harry in one arm and a towel in the other. She raised an eyebrow when she saw both were soaking wet, Remus’s shirt being see-through.

Remus grinned softly. “We decided to give Harry a bath, he wasn’t too pleased with that as you can see.”

His grin softened. “Don’t worry about Padfoot, he’ll have one hell of a headache in the morning, but he’ll be alright.”

“Now, on that note, I’m going to go change out of my shirt.”

With those words, he turned to head into Sirius’s bedroom and Paige turned to grin at Hermione, who raised an eyebrow in question.

“So, tell me Mione, how much did you enjoy a soaking wet Remus?”

The answering red cheeks of her friend made Paige let out a soft laugh, being careful not to wake Sirius as she ducked to avoid the towel being thrown at her.

* * *

 

Sirius felt his head pounding as he woke up, letting out a groan when he tried to sit up and cursing loudly.

“Welcome back to the world of the living Black,”

Sirius blinked as a glass was placed in his hands, looking up to see Paige smirking at him with her hands on her hips.

“It’s a hangover potion, Hermione and Remus whipped it up for you.”

She watched as he took a sniff and immediately recoiled. “That smells horrible!”

“Yes, well, maybe that will teach you not to drink seven glasses in one night.”

Paige’s expression softened as she sat next to him, watching him take a sip and gagging. “How are you?”

Sirius huffed, putting the glass down as far away from him as possible before he looked at her. “Like someone’s tap-dancing in my head.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

He sighed, his grey eyes meeting green as he replied quietly. “Like it’s my fault.”

“It’s not,” Paige stated firmly. “Peter chose to betray my parents and Voldemort chose to kill them, they are the ones at fault, not you.”

“Peter wouldn’t have been able to betray them if he weren’t the Secret Keeper,” he argued, sitting up despite the pain in his head warning him not to. “And he wouldn’t have been the Secret Keeper if it wasn’t for me.”

Paige was quiet for a few minutes, which made Sirius think she was agreeing with him and he didn’t like the hurt that went through him at the idea she blamed him for the deaths of James and Lily.

“If we’re going by that logic, then James and Lily are also at fault,”

Sirius’s eyes widened but she pushed on, “Because if they hadn’t made him Secret Keeper then they would still be alive,”

 “Remus should also be blamed because his work with the packs made him suspicious and thus, he wasn’t able to be Secret Keeper, heck, why not blame Dumbledore while we’re at it since he should have seen it was Peter who was the spy,”

Paige didn’t say that Dumbledore _was_ to blame for a lot of things because she didn’t think it was important at this point in time.

“No, of course, they’re not…” Sirius trailed off, letting out a chuckle when he realized what she was saying. “I’m being a guilty idiot, aren’t I?”

Paige laughed, her eyes twinkling. “You are, but at least you’ve accepted it.”

She startled when he took her hand, squeezing it as he replied sincerely, “Thank you Paige.”

His dark eyes seemed warm when he smiled at her and Paige felt her face heat as she quickly stood up, ignoring the confused—and maybe hurt?—expression on his face.

“You need to drink all of that up, by the way,”

Sirius let out a whine, staring at the glass as if he thought it was going to bite him. “Do I have to?”

“Yes, Sirius,”

Hermione said as she entered, raising an eyebrow when she saw Paige busying herself in the kitchen with red cheeks. “It will help you.”

Sirius continued to moan and complain until Paige, fed up, grabbed a towel and launched it at him. “Shut up and drink the damn potion Black.”

That caused the two to get into an argument and Hermione sighed, sharing an exasperated look with Remus, though a smile formed on her lips.

At least things were back to normal…such as they were, anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, that was a ride! I knew this chapter was going to be a long one, but it still kind of surprised him.
> 
> Apologizes for the lack of Remus and Hermione interaction, this was really about Paige and Sirius, but I promise to include more in the next chapter.
> 
> On that note, next chapter will have Sirius going back to work and accidentally volunteering Hermione and Paige while the girls (and Remus) go out shopping with Harry.


	6. Sirius Black Goes Back to Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius goes back to work and accidentally volunteers Hermione and Paige while Hermione has an unexpected encounter while out shopping.

Sirius took a deep breath as he stepped out of the floo, a small smile forming on his face when he saw Amelia waiting for him.

“Auror Black, it’s good to have you back,” Amelia replied as she shook his hand. “As much as I would like to say it will be an easy first day…”

“I understand Mia,” Sirius replied as the two began walking to their office. “It’s probably been a hectic few days.”

He heard her let out a heavy sigh as she stopped in front of the doors leading to the Magical Law Enforcement Office. “That’s an understatement.”

They entered and were immediately greeted by the chaos you would expect to come out of the MLE office at this point of time: people were rushing back and forth while yelling at each other and a group of Aurors were gathered around a table, talking in low voices.

“Sirius!”

Turning his head Sirius smiled when he saw Emmeline Vance and Kingsley sitting in their usual area. He made his way over to them. “Kingsley, Em, it’s good to see you.”

Kingsley nodded as he shook his head, a warm smile on his face. “It’s good to have you back Black, I hope there are no hard feelings because of, well, you know.”

An unreadable expression briefly crossed Sirius’s face before it was replaced with a reassuring grin. “Don’t worry Kingsley, you were just doing your job.”

“Still, what was Crouch thinking?” Emmeline huffed in annoyance, her brown eyes hard. “How could anyone think you, of all people, would betray James and Lily?”

She turned red when she saw Amelia standing nearby. “Head Auror Bones, I didn’t…”

“It’s fine Auror Vance,” Amelia replied dryly, her expression becoming serious. “Mr. Crouch has a lot to answer for.”

“Bones!”

Sirius watched Amelia frown and turn, following her gaze to see, much to his displeasure, Crouch standing outside his office with an unhappy expression.

He met Sirius’s gaze and the two of them stared at each other for a few uncomfortable minutes—causing a tense silence to fall over the office as they watched the staring contest with nervousness—until Crouch let out a muffle grunt and yelled, “I need you in my office Bones, now!” before entering his office and slamming the door shut.

Amelia let out a sigh, saying goodbye to the three Aurors before heading towards Crouch’s office. The trio watched as Amelia knocked politely on the door, waited for a minute and then entered the office.

“Well, that was pleasant,”

Emmeline remarked dryly, causing Sirius to chuckle as he took a seat. “At least he didn’t yell at you,”

“Small victories,” Sirius stated as he stared at the pile of folders. “Is this what we’re working on?”

Kingsley nodded, watching Sirius take the top folder. “Yes, we’re currently working through all arrested Death Eaters, ensuring everything is in order for their trials…”

Kingsley trailed off when he saw the expression on Sirius’s face when he opened the folder he was holding. A look at the folder made him wince when he realised that was Peter Pettigrew’s file.

“He didn’t have the Dark Mark…”

Emmeline and Kingsley shared a look before the former cleared her throat. “No, the examination determined that he never took it; the interrogation indicated that Vol—You-Know-Who never gave him the mark because it would be easier for him to be a spy.”

Sirius stared at the folder for a few minutes, the eyes of his once-best friend staring back him. “Well, at least he didn’t sink that low.”

He slammed the folder closed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to reign in the temper he felt building. He let out a heavy sigh before grabbing another folder.

There was time for dwelling in his anger later, right now he had files to read.

Sirius worked quietly with Kingsley and Emmeline for the next few hours, the three of them exchanging small talk only briefly before going back to work.

He had just finished reading the file on Thorfinn Rowle when he heard Crouch’s familiar aggravating voice bark, “Black, get in here now!”

Sirius exchanged looks with Kingsley and Emmeline before finally standing up and heading to his boss’s office. When he entered the office, however, he was met with a surprising sight.

“Auror Black, it’s good to see you back,”

Minister Millicent Bagnold stated warmly, holding out her hand which Sirius took. He gave her a small smile. “This is a surprise Minister Bagnold, what brings you here?”

“Please, take a seat,” Millicent gestured at an empty chair. Sirius looked over his shoulder at Amelia curiously, avoiding Crouch’s scowl as he took a seat.

“I’m sure you’re aware that the Ministry is currently dealing with the aftermath of You-Know-Who’s death, particularly the tracking and arresting of his followers.”

Sirius nodded, his expression solemn as Millicent let out a heavy sigh. “It would appear the ICW is very interested in how we’re dealing with it.”

“The ICW?”

Sirius questioned, his eyes wide. “But the ICW hasn’t gotten involved in the affairs of an individual Ministry since…”

He trailed off, watching Millicent nod her head stiffly. “It has been a while, since everything that happened with Grindelwald.”

“But the ICW pointed out that You-Know-Who’s reign of terror didn’t just involve the magical world, but the muggle world when you consider how many he and his followers killed,”

 Millicent paused for a moment before continuing. “They pointed out that the Ministry’s compliance came dangerously close to endangering the Statute of Secrecy, especially when they learned it was very possible You-Know-Who had several supporters working within the Ministry.”

Sirius bit his lip to prevent himself from agreeing with the ICW in front of the Minister since the Ministry hadn’t done much to stop Voldemort and his followers in the beginning and did little to try and remove the known sympathizers from their positions with the Ministry.

“So, what exactly is the ICW trying to say?” Amelia questioned, causing Millicent to exhale sharply. “The ICW have asked us to do a complete audit of every single department, to determine exactly which departments are compromised.”

She raised her hand when she saw Crouch open his mouth to protest, fixing him with an icy blue stare. “I understand, Barty, that you think the Magical Law Enforcement Department should be exempt from such an audit, but the ICW has made it clear that _all_ departments are to be audited.”

“Personally, I think the MLE is the most important department to be audited since it being compromised puts the safety of everyone at risk and I’m _sure_ you don’t want that to happen Barty.”

Sirius resisted the urge to smirk at Crouch’s chagrined expression, though his scowl didn’t disappear. Millicent crossed her arms over her chest. “The ICW also wants us to review every law passed during You-Know-Who’s reign.”

“Why?”

Sirius questioned, ignoring the death glare he could feel aimed at him. Millicent gave him a weak smile. “The ICW wants us to see which laws were passed because they could benefit You-Know-Who and his followers.”

“Well,” Amelia began, folding her hands behind her back. “Who will be doing this audit Minister Bagnold?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Sirius questioned, raising an eyebrow as Millicent gave him an irritated look. “I mean, Auror Black, I don’t know because the ICW has asked me to choose someone to act as their representative but they’ve made it clear they want the person to be unbiased and uncorrupt.”

A lightbulb went off in Sirius’s head and he began tentatively, “I may know _two_ people who can do the job, actually,”

Everyone turned to him and Millicent raising an eyebrow in question. “Two people, you say?”

“One of them is James’s cousin, Paige,” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Amelia raise an eyebrow. “And the other is her best friend, Hermione.”

“James’s cousin…you mean Miss Paige Potter?” Millicent’s expression became thoughtful. “And her friend, Hermione Granger? She’s a muggleborn, isn’t she?”

She turned to Amelia who schooled her expression. “You’ve met her Head Auror Bones, haven’t you?”

“I’ve met both of them, Minister Bagnold,” Amelia replied, careful not to give anything away with her expression. Millicent hummed and asked, “Do you believe they are a good fit for this position?”

“I think both of them are witches with, from what I can tell, a high sense of integrity,” Amelia turned to Sirius, raising an eyebrow in question. “Is my assessment of them correct, Auror Black?”

Sirius thought about how Paige and Hermione expressed their desire to fight for equal rights of all magical creatures. He thought about how Paige stepped in to keep him from going to Azkaban and how she refused to let Harry go to the Dursleys.

“That is a very accurate assessment of their personalities Head Auror Bones.”

Millicent nodded, making her way to the door. “Well, I’ll, of course, want to meet them first, but with glowing recommendations from both of you, I don’t think there will be any problems.”

“I’ll let them know,” Sirius watched Millicent shake Crouch’s hand and then Amelia’s before nodding to him and leaving the room.

“Well, we’ll just leave you, Barty,” Amelia stated. Crouch let out a grunt in response as he returned to his desk, staring at the papers with such ferocity that Sirius was surprised they weren’t lit on fire.

Sirius exited the office with Amelia, who turned to look at him. “What’s with that look, Amelia?”

“By any chance,” Amelia began, raising an eyebrow in question. “Did you _inform_ Hermione and Paige you were volunteering them for this?”

“How could I when I didn’t even know such a position existed?”

Sirius did _not_ like the look he was being given as Amelia stated dryly, “So you basically just volunteered them for a high-profile position, that will probably be under a lot of scrutiny, without their permission?”

Amelia had to admit, the deer in headlights expression was a good look for her Auror. “That’s…it was…I didn’t mean to…?”

Sirius tried weakly but he could tell Amelia wouldn’t buy it. “They can’t be _that_ mad at me, can they?”

Well, Amelia wasn’t going to be the one to ruin his fantasy. She just hoped her Auror would still be alive when the girls found out.

* * *

 

 “I’ve forgotten how high-waisted pants were in the eighties…”

Remus chuckled, grinning when Hermione stepped out of the dressing room dressed in a white blouse with dark blue high-waisted pants and a matching vest.

“So,” Hermione turned around in a circle. “What do you think?”

“I think you look stunning Miss Granger, though you look good in everything,” Remus said honestly and Hermione felt her cheeks flush.

“And somehow Sirius is the ladies’ man?”

Paige stepped out of her dressing room, dressed in a soft green sweater and a pair of baggy blue jeans. She glanced at herself in the mirror, wiggling her legs experimentally. “These are so comfortable.”

A smile formed on her face when she heard Harry laugh, walking over and scooping him into her arms. “What do you think Harry?”

Harry, of course, didn’t reply but made gestures with his hands. Paige smiled and kissed him on the forehead.

Remus watched the scene with a smile, casually stretching as he had been sitting for quite a while and couldn’t help but smirk when he saw Hermione quickly look away with a flush on her cheeks.

They had certainly got a lot of attention when they first walked into the store, especially when people saw the scars on Remus’s face, but the looks quickly stopped when they found themselves on the receiving end of two very unamused witches.

“Do you think you girls managed to buy the entire store yet?”

Remus joked as he looked at the pile of clothes the two witches had compiled. Paige rolled her eyes. “It’s not our fault we didn’t exactly bring suitcases with us, if we had known we were going to get tossed into an alternate universe we might have prepared better.”

Hermione chuckled as she went back into the dressing room to change back into her clothes. She reappeared a few minutes later and gathered the clothes her and Paige decided not to buy. “I’m just going to go put this back on the rack.”

She headed in the direction of where they had gotten the clothes, not really paying attention when she suddenly slammed into something, or rather, someone.

“Ah!”

She exclaimed as she flailed, wincing when she fell on her butt. The clothes she had been carrying flew over her and she became panicked when she hard someone else let out a groan of pain.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry!”

The apology flew out of her as she hurried to help the person she had just unceremoniously knocked over. She opened her mouth to make another apology when she saw the person and just froze.

“It’s fine, really, I’ve always been such a klutz, are you ok?”

Hermione tried to make words come out of her mouth but found them stuck as she stared at the woman with familiar brown hair and eyes.

She was a lot younger, with slightly fewer wrinkles, but her smile was still familiar.

“Oh, I suppose I should introduce myself,” the woman explained as she held out her hand. “I’m Miranda Granger, and you are?”

Hermione shook herself, taking the hand offered to her with a small smile. “I’m Hermione.”

“Hermione?” Miranda asked, her eyes lighting up in recognition. “Like the character from _The Winter’s Tale?_ ”

“Yes,” Hermione couldn’t help but laugh. “You’d be surprised how many people don’t know that!”

“Oh, it doesn’t surprise me,” Miranda smirked. “Few people read the Bard’s work anymore.”

Hermione opened her mouth to reply when she heard a familiar voice calling out to her, “Hermione?”

She turned to see Remus making his way towards her, a confused expression on his face when he saw who she was talking to. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mother briefly lock onto the scars of his face before she schooled her expression.

“Remus,” Hermione greeted warmly as he came to stand next to her. “Miranda, this is Remus Lupin, Remus this is Miranda Granger.”

She saw the recognition in his eyes and watched his expression only briefly change as he shook Miranda’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Miranda,”

“It’s nice to meet you too Remus,” Miranda said with a raised eyebrow. “Remus…that’s quite an unusual name.”

Remus briefly tensed but it dissipated when she let out a laugh. “Though I guess it makes you two a perfect couple, the bonding over having such unusual names.”

Hermione knew she had just turned red and Remus probably had too as she stammered, “We’re not together.”

“Oh, sorry,” Miranda apologized. “But in any case, Hermione is a beautiful name, maybe I’ll name my daughter that.”

Hermione felt a chill run down her spine as she asked in what she hoped wasn’t a shaky tone, “You don’t have any children?”

She felt Remus wrap his arm around her reassuringly as Miranda shook her head, a soft smile on her face. “No, Paul and I have been trying for two years now but no luck.”

“I’m sorry,”

Remus said honestly and Miranda gave him a gentle smile. “It’s fine, if it happens it happens, if not we can just adopt.”

An awkward silence fell over the group and Remus could feel Hermione shaking as Miranda cleared her throat. “Well, I should be getting back to Paul now, it was nice to meet you, Hermione,”

“It was nice to meet you as well,”

Hermione replied in a soft voice, watching Miranda wave goodbye as she exited the store. As soon as Miranda vanished from her sight Hermione inhaled sharply, her hands almost vibrating.

“Hermione? I’m going to take you back to Paige and then come back to clean up these clothes alright?”

Remus watched her nod and placed his hand on her back, leading her to where Paige was waiting with Harry and the shopping bags.

She frowned when she saw how her best friend was acting and quickly made her way over to them. “What happened?”

Hermione saw Remus whisper in her friend’s ear and she saw the recognition in her eyes when she turned to look at her and, oh, Hermione now understood why Paige hated it when people looked at her with pity.

It was the most annoying thing in the world.

Paige directed Hermione to sit on a nearby bench while Remus left to go clean up the clothes, waiting for a few minutes before asking, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t exist,”

Paige frowned as Hermione continued, lifting her head to meet her friend’s gaze. “I met my mother who was supposed to have me in 1979 and I _don’t exist_.”

“Yet,” Paige tried to point out as Hermione shook her head. “You don’t exist yet, maybe this world’s version of Hermione will be born in 1982 instead—”

“Or maybe I won’t be born at all,”

Paige was quiet as Hermione continued, hearing her voice getting higher. “And maybe that’s a good thing, because my parents won’t have a witch for a daughter and won’t have to deal with her weirdness.”

“ _Hermione Jean Granger_ ,”

Hermione heard the warning in her friend’s tone. “You are _not_ weird, you are the most brilliant witch I have ever known and I’m sure your parents would never think otherwise.”

“But—”

Hermione’s weak protest was cut off by her friend giving her an intense stare. “No, you are my best friend and I would be dead a thousand times if it weren’t for you.”

Hermione let out a heavy sigh, giving her a grateful smile as she saw Remus returning from over Paige’s shoulder. “This is nice, normally _I’m_ the one giving you pep talks.”

Paige chuckled as she stood up, adjusting Harry in her arms while she handed Hermione one of the shopping bags. “It was bound to happen at some point.”

* * *

 

Sirius paced nervously, switching between glancing at the clock and the floo as he waited for Remus and the girls to get back from their shopping trip.

He had been concerned when Paige first proposed the idea, only mildly reassured when she pointed out the Death Eaters wouldn’t be able to navigate the muggle world.

It was when Remus offered to accompany the girls that Sirius felt calmer about their trip. He knew Paige and Hermione could handle themselves and wouldn’t let anything happen to Harry, but there was a part of him that was paranoid about losing people he cared about.

The floo roared and Sirius quickly turned to see Paige come out of the fireplace, two shopping bags over one arm while she held Harry in her other.

He moved to take Harry from her, smiling as he leaned in to press a kiss to the boy’s messy hair. “So, how much money did you spend?”

Paige rolled her eyes at the grin he was giving her, moving to put the shopping bags on the table while Hermione and Remus appeared with coughs. “Not a lot, just enough that Mione and I would have some muggle clothes to wear when wizarding robes got too constricting.”

Sirius nodded, raising an eyebrow when he saw the expression on Hermione’s face. “Did something happen?”

“Oh, nothing much, I just met my mother,”

Sirius’s eyes widened as he asked, “You met your mother?”

“Well, sort of: she wasn’t really _my_ mother because I don’t exist in this world, apparently,” Hermione explained, not meeting Sirius’s gaze.

Sirius opened his mouth but decided it was perhaps better not to say anything, instead turning to Paige. “So, Minister Bagnold stopped by the office today,”

“Oh?” Paige raised an eyebrow in question. “Why was she there?”

Sirius explained what the ICW had asked the Ministry to do and watched as Paige and Hermione exchanged looks before Hermione spoke.

“Well, that’s certainly something different,”

Remus nodded, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. “The ICW generally doesn’t get involved in the affairs of the individual Ministries; the last time they really took action was during the time of Grindelwald.”

“But it’s nice,” Paige pointed out when they turned to look at her in question. “If you think about it, if Voldemort _had_ succeeded in taking over Britain, he wouldn’t have stopped there.”

“His goal was to build a pureblood world so he obviously would have had to move to the other countries: the British Ministry’s inaction could have nearly caused an international crisis.”

Remus blinked, his expression shocked as he admitted, “I never really thought about it like that.”

“So, who’s doing the audit?” Paige asked, raising an eyebrow when she saw Sirius’s sheepish expression. “What?”

“Well, I sort of,” he cleared his throat. “…might have suggested you and Hermione for the position?”

There was silence as Remus watched the expressions on Paige and Hermione’s faces shift. Paige cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Look, you and Hermione both said you wanted to reform the Ministry, right?” Sirius watched her nod. “I just gave you the opportunity to do just that.”

“Without asking us beforehand?”

Sirius winced. “In my defense, I wasn’t aware this was something that was happening and so I couldn’t really ask you; it just happened in the moment.”

Sweat rolled down his back as Paige and Hermione exchanged looks before turning to stare at him. Paige’s green eyes staring at him reminded him _strongly_ of Lily whenever she didn’t approve of whatever he and James were planning.

Finally, Paige let out a heavy sigh. “Alright.”

Sirius’s shoulders slumped in relief as he gave her a gentle smile. “Minister Bagnold wants to meet with you beforehand, but Amelia also spoke highly of you so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

Hermione nodded, making a mental note to owl the Minister. “I’ll go contact her right now.”

She left the room and Sirius watched her leave before turning to Paige with a grin. “So, we’re good Angel?”

Paige smirked. “Oh _no_ , you’re still going to have to be punished.”

Despite the situation, Sirius’s grin grew wider. “And how exactly are you going to punish me?”

Still smirking Paige withdrew her wand and pointed it at Sirius, causing dog ears and a tail to appear. She twirled her wand, walking away with a spring in her step. “Now you really _are_ a dog Black!”

“Potter, get back here and turn me back!”

Remus sighed as he watched Sirius run after Paige, anger in his eyes. Remus looked down at Harry, who looked up at him as only a child who knew nothing about what was going around him would.

“It’ll be a miracle if your godfather lives to see your third birthday Prongslet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Sirius went back to work and got Hermione and Paige volunteered for the ICW representative position. This should be interesting.
> 
> Also, I ended up doing a lot of research regarding the clothing of the eighties but of course I may still be inaccurate.
> 
> Next chapter Hermione and Paige go to work and have a few surprising encounters.


	7. Let's Reform the Ministry, How Hard Could It Be?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paige and Hermione begin auditing the departments and, to no one's surprise, find a lot of things that need fixing.
> 
> Also, Remus ends up getting a job, much to his surprise

Paige coughed as she exited the floo, Hermione following close behind her. A few muttered words later and both of their robes had been cleared of soot thanks to a smirking Sirius.

“Miss Potter, Miss Granger,” Minister Bagnold made her way over to them with a smile on her face, two Aurors standing on either side. “It’s an honor to finally meet you.”

Paige returned the smile as she shook Bagnold’s offered hand. “It’s nice to be here Minister,”

Hermione echoed the sentiment as she also shook hands with Bagnold. Bagnold cleared her throat, gesturing for the girls to follow her as she began walking towards her office.

“So, you have been made aware of the position, correct?” Bagnold questioned, turning to look at them over her shoulder.

Paige nodded. “Yes, you want us to do an audit of every department as well as review every law passed during the reign of You-Know-Who,”

She was quite pleased that she resisted the urge to use Voldemort’s real name, as much as she hated the idea of fearing a name, she acknowledged that she was now living in a time where the fear hadn’t yet passed and she needed to respect that.

“Correct,” Bagnold stopped in front of her office, waving her wand to cause the door to swing open before gesturing for them to enter.

Hermione entered first, taking a seat in front of the desk followed by Paige. She waited until Bagnold also sat down at her desk before asking, “I assume you have questions you want to ask us?’

“Yes,” Bagnold folded her hands and stared at them intently. “My first question is why do you want to take this position?”

Hermione and Paige shared a look before Paige made a motion with her head.

Nodding Hermione turned to Bagnold and took a deep breath, her brown eyes serious as she stated, “Because we do not wish for the Ministry to remain compliant and want to do everything in our power to help it reform itself.”

“Ah…” Bagnold seemed somewhat stunned by this statement but managed to continue. “Auror Black was the one who recommended you for this position; will you let what happened to him cloud your judgement in regards to Mr. Crouch?”

Paige pondered this question for a few minutes, her eyes narrowing in thought before she shook her head. “No, I can assure you when we conduct the audit of the MLE, it will be independent of any personal feelings we may have for Mr. Crouch,”

Bagnold nodded, leaning in closer as she asked in a soft tone, “My final question is do you think the death of the Potters will ever affect you during this position?”

“Yes,”

Bagnold’s eyes widened as she stared at Paige, an action imitated by Hermione who was not quite sure what her best friend was doing.

“I cannot say it won’t, because that would be lying,” Paige took a deep breath. “James was my cousin, practically my brother, and his death will always be a part of me,”

“His death is _why_ I want to do this position because it gives me the chance to ensure what happened to him won’t happen to anyone else by creating a Ministry completely free of harmful beliefs.”

“In short,” A smile pulled at Paige’s lips. “His death will affect me, but it will never hamper my ability to do this position.”

Bagnold was silent for a few minutes, staring at the witch with an unreadable expression. Then a smile appeared. “I think you two will be perfect for this position.”

Paige’s shoulders slumped in relief and she saw Hermione with a similar relieved expression as they shook hands with Bagnold, who stood to lead them to their office.

As it turns out, their office was only a few doors down from Bagnold’s office. It was, roughly, the size of a broom closet with only two desks facing each other in the middle of the room. A smaller desk was set up off to the side.

When they entered the office, there was a blonde woman dressed in light blue silk robes and a pair of matching heels was adding more files to the already large stacks on both desks.

She turned and Paige was met with a pair of sharp blue eyes. A part of her wondered if she was looking at a younger Narcissa Malfoy, though she dismissed that thought when the woman smiled warmly at her.

“You must be Miss Potter and Miss Granger,” she held out her hand. “Florence Volant, at your service.”

“Florence will be your assistant,” Bagnold explained as the three women introduced themselves. “She collected the files required for your audit,”

“I can see that,” Hermione stated, her gaze travelling to large stacks. “Well, at least we can get started,”

“I’ll let you get down to work,” Bagnold said as she headed to the door, shutting it behind her as she said another goodbye.

Paige watched her leave and turned to look at Hermione, her eyebrow raised in question. “So, where do you want to start?”

She gestured at the stacks and Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. There was a _lot_ of reading they would have to do.

“Florence, how are the stacks organized?”

Florence nodded in understanding, gesturing at the stacks. “The stacks are divided by department,”

Paige walked closer, picking up one of the files and seeing the folder had the symbol for the MLE on it. “Well, that makes it easier,”

She turned to Hermione. “Which stacks do you want to take?”

Paige had a suspicion she knew which ones Hermione would want to take and wasn’t surprised when she said she requested to be the one to read the stack belonging to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

In the end, they managed to successfully divide the stacks between them and settled in to read them.

“Alright,” Paige said as she stood, conjuring a blackboard with her wand. “First things first, we should look at areas within each department that can be improved,”

Hermione nodded, not even taking a moment to think before she had pointed her wand at the board and the words _review werewolf laws_ had appeared.

“Why did I know that was the first thing you would suggest?”

Hermione smirked at her friend who also pointed her wand at the board and the words _review donations made to departments_.

“That makes sense,” Hermione nodded. “We know many Death Eaters and sympathizers made donations, hopefully, we can use those to prove malevolent intent.”

And it continued like that, with the witches adding more ideas for things for the various departments to do. Paige suggested that the MLE hire outside specialists to determine if the Death Eaters who claimed they were Imperioused were telling the truth while Hermione proposed a review of the employment laws that favoured purebloods.

It was a long few hours with Paige and Hermione continuously reading the files and then adding to the blackboard when they found something they thought needed a review.

“I knew the Ministry was incompetent,” Hermione stated as she let out a loud sigh, putting her head on her arms. “But this…this is a whole other level,”

Paige nodded, casting a tired gaze over her stack. In the hours she had read through the files, she found evidence of people she knew were Death Eaters giving donations to various departments and afterward several suspicious laws were passed.

There was also a disturbing lack of trials mentioned in the MLE files, and while Paige knew several of the Death Eaters were, in fact, guilty, she recognized several names that had never been mentioned in conjunction with Voldemort or his followers.

A delicious smell reached Paige’s nose and she turned to see Florence holding bags of food with a smile on her face. “I figured you might be hungry,”

“Thank you,” Hermione said with a smile as she took one of the bags. Her mouth watered when she pulled out a turkey sandwich.

“So, Florence,” Paige asked curiously after she took a bite of her chicken. “How exactly did you end up with this job?”

“I requested it,”

Hermione raised an eyebrow, clearly trying to be polite as she asked, “You requested to be the assistant to a new position?”

Florence chuckled, her eyes sharp with amusement. “I realize it seems like a big risk, but considering the position was created by the ICW and directly answers to the Minister, I figured it would be a huge boost to my career,”

“You’re a Slytherin, aren’t you?”

Paige watched the woman’s mouth curve into a smirk. “Am I that obvious?”

She sighed heavily, crossing her legs. “I belong to the pureblood Volant family, who has a strong history in France and hopes to create even stronger connections here in Britain,”

Hermione resisted the urge to laugh at how dramatic Florence was being, it was as if she were doing a monologue. “We are proud to say that our family has strong ties to the Lestrange family through marriage and thus we can also claim to be related to the Black family.”

Florence grimaced when she saw the expressions on their faces. “Yes, unfortunately, I am related to the madness of _that_ family,”

“You obviously don’t support their ideals,” Hermione pointed out politely, careful not to give anything away.

She watched Florence wave her hand as if dismissing the very idea. “Why would I?”

Florence said this with a casual air as if she was saying she didn’t like a particular food rather than throwing away an ideal her family had likely held onto for centuries.

“Well,” Paige gave Florence a warm smile. “It’s nice to be working with you, Miss Volant.”

A smile spread across the woman’s face. “Believe me, Miss Potter, the feeling is returned.”

* * *

 

“Remus?”

Remus’s enhanced hearing picked up the sound of the door opening accompanied by Hermione’s soft voice and he carefully moved Harry—who protested loudly at being removed from his spot crushing the werewolf’s esophagus—so he can sit up.

Hermione entered the room and tried not to visibly react at the image Remus presents, his arm casually slung across his knees and his mouth turned up in a gentle smile. Instead she redirects her attention to Harry, smiling at the adorable pout on his face.

“What on earth did you do to him to make him give you that her look?”

Her tone was amused as her eyes twinkled and Remus desperately tried not to think about how beautiful it made her look as he smirked. “He’s upset that I wouldn’t let him continue in his attempt to suffocate me by sitting on my stomach,”

“Last time I checked, Harry only weighed seventeen pounds,” Hermione remarked dryly as she sat down next to the boy who lived, waving her wand to conjure a train that was blowing steam.

“If you’re done mocking me woman,” Remus mock growled, completely missing the blush that appeared on Hermione’s face as he turned to watch Harry begin pushing the train. “What exactly are you doing here? I was under the impression you and Paige were going through the files sent to you,”

Hermione didn’t speak for a moment, feeling Remus’s eyes on her as she watched Harry attempt to make choo-choo sounds before she asked, “You went undercover with the packs, right?”

Turning her head, she saw Remus raise an eyebrow, caution entering his tone when he replied, “Yes, for a few months during the War, why are you asking?”

A serious expression crossed Hermione’s face as she let out a heavy sigh before stating, “How would you feel about working as a consultant and ambassador for the werewolf community?”

She watched his eyes widen briefly in shock before he shook his head quickly. “Hermione…”

“Listen to me,” he looked up as she moved closer to him, her brown eyes alight with fire. “I’m not a werewolf, while I have an idea about what they need, I don’t know _exactly_ what they want,”

Remus nodded, seeing the fire build up in the brunette witch as she continued, “The only people who know are the werewolves themselves and they need to have their voices heard,”

“I agree with you Hermione,” Remus shifted so their shoulders were now touching and a shiver went down his spine when he looked into her eyes. “But the Ministry is _never_ going to hire a werewolf, even to act as a consultant—”

“But they will,”

Hermione cut him off, her mouth curving in a smirk. “They’ll have to because I plan to go to Minister Bagnold and inform her this is what Paige and I determined would be the best course of action for the Ministry to take.”

She watched him struggle, his expression shifting from surprised to caution to something that resembled _pride_. “You realize the RCMC is going to fight this?”

“I think _all_ of the departments are going to fight everything we say,” Hermione shrugged, glancing over her shoulder at Harry who was blissfully unaware of the politics currently being discussed. “But Paige and I know we have to do this.”

“So,”

She held out her hand, a smirk slowly forming on her face. “Will you, Remus Lupin, accept this position?”

A smile stretched across the werewolf’s face as he took her hand. “I suppose I will, Miss Granger.”

* * *

 

An irritated huff escaped Paige’s lips as she glared at the file she was currently reading. If only she could light it on her fire with just her eyes…

“What did that file do to you?”

Sirius’s amused tone reached her ears and she turned to see him casually leaning against the doorway, his familiar smirk on his face.

“It proves the Ministry is little more than a group of bumbling idiots,” Paige replied dryly, causing Florence to snort from her desk.

Sirius turned his head, curious to see who had snorted and raised an eyebrow when he saw Florence staring at him with an amused smile.

“Volant, what are you doing here?”

“I’m helping Miss Potter and Miss Granger Black,” Florence’s smile turned into a smirk.

A brief expression of confusion crossed Paige’s face as she wondered how they knew each other. Then she remembered who Sirius’s family was.

“I’m going to assume this is the whole pureblood children playing together thing,” Paige remarked and Florence chuckled.

“Yes, I remember you broke quite a few hearts when you got sorted into Slytherin,”

Paige carefully watched Sirius’s expression shift as he let out a bitter chuckle. “Well, they were always going to get disappointed.”

Sirius sighed, running a hand through his hair as he glanced at Paige. “So, the files?”

Paige pushed the files towards him, causing him to arch an eyebrow at her in question. “Those are the MLE files, I don’t think it will be a big deal if you see them,”

“Besides,” her smile became bitter. “I think you should read them.”

She watched him open one of the files, his eyes scanning the page. His expression became harder and harder until he slammed the file shut, pushing it away aggressively.

“I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t given a trial,” Sirius remarked, an unreadable look in his eyes.

Paige nodded with a sigh, glancing at the files with pursed lips. “It seems a lot of people were sent to Azkaban without one, I understand it was a hectic time but…”

“That doesn’t mean we should ignore the law,” Sirius ran a hand through his hair and Paige was annoyed that the first thought that popped into her head was how attractive it made him look.

“You _are_ bringing up this up with Minister Bagnold, right?”

“Of course,” Paige promised, glancing at the other stacks with a calculating eye. “We’re probably going to end up having a meeting with each of the department heads after we compile the audits.”

Sirius snorted, a grin forming. “Good luck,”

“Yeah, we’re going to need it.”

* * *

 

A loud groan escaped Paige’s mouth as she collapsed on the couch, causing an amused Hermione to arch an eyebrow in question. “Why are you so exhausted?”

Hermione smirked when Paige glowered and pointed a finger at her. “ _You_ don’t get to ask me that, you abandoned me to go through all of the stacks,”

“Because I needed to ask Remus if he would take the position,” Hermione stated, removing the finger pointed at her casually. “You were the one who said I could.”

“But you never came back,” Paige grinned when she saw Hermione start to flush. “What did you and our friendly werewolf get up to?”

“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Hermione shot back, sticking her head in the book she was reading to hide her flushed cheeks. “We ended up going through some of Sirius’s books to see if he had anything on rituals to remove dark magic scars.”

“And?”

Paige sat up, her expression serious as her gaze immediately went to the book in Hermione’s hands. Hermione felt her lips twitch at the hope in her friend’s eyes.

“Sadly, we found nothing,” Hermione made a sound of frustration as she closed the book. “We did find a few books that _referenced_ certain rituals but they’re in other books that we need to track down,”

“That doesn’t surprise me,”

Both witches let out a noise of surprise as they shot up, wands were drawn and pointed at Sirius who was holding Harry. Paige glared at him while she holstered her wand.

“Would you stop doing that? One of these days I’m going to hex you and it will be _well_ deserved,”

“Aw, come on Angel,” Sirius grinned at her. “You know you love me.”

“In your dreams Black,”

Hermione decided to step in. “You were saying you weren’t surprised?”

Sirius turned to her, his grin softening. “Yeah, any ritual that removed dark magic scars would be one that required a lot of power and thus wouldn’t be found in any ordinary book,”

“Any idea where we could find one?” Hermione asked.

“The restricted section at Hogwarts might,”

Remus joined the conversation, coming to stand beside Hermione and shoot her a soft smile that she returned, to the amusement of Sirius and Paige.

Harry made a noise and began gesturing towards Paige, who smiled and stepped forward to take him from Sirius.

Remus watched the scene with twinkling eyes before he coughed. “But we’d probably have better luck looking in the Archives.”

“The Archives?”

Paige and Hermione asked in unison. Paige gently reached out to stop Harry from grabbing a strand of her hair.

“The Department of Mysteries Archives?” At their blank expression Sirius continued, looking confused as he did so. “They’re _the_ collection of the most ancient magical texts in Britain, how did you never hear about them?”

“Or did they not exist in your world?”

Remus asked, his eyes narrowing in realization. Hermione shrugged. “It’s entirely possible we just never found out,”

“I find that hard to believe,” Sirius scoffed, though he backtracked when he saw the glare Paige was shooting him as she adjusted Harry. “Even though the Archives are _supposed_ to be kept secret, everyone knows about them.”

“Is the access to it restricted?” Paige asked, watching Remus and Sirius shake their heads. “You _do_ need an Unspeakable to escort you as well as a form explaining why you want access, but they generally let anyone who wants to do research in.”

“Well,” Hermione began, looking at Paige. “I guess we’ll need to go and look at them.”

“I wouldn’t mind going with you,” Remus blurted out, feeling his cheeks heat when everyone turned to look at him. “I mean, only if you want to Hermione.”

Hermione shook her head, sure her cheeks were just as red as the famous Weasley hair. “No, that would be great, we worked really well together,”

“And besides,” she gave Paige a fondly amused look. “I know Paige wouldn’t like looking at books for hours on end.”

“Hey!”

Paige protested, pouting in a way that made Sirius’s gaze travel to her mouth before quickly averting his gaze.

“Sirius is the same way,” Remus said, his tone amused. He ignored Sirius’s grumble of “idiot werewolf”.

“Then it’s a date.”

Hermione’s eyes widened and she immediately regretted her wording, though her embarrassment died down when Remus gave her a warm grin.

At that point Harry seemed to be getting restless and let the adults know with a loud cry. Paige sighed, pressing a kiss to the top of his head as she bounced him in a gentle pattern.

“I think Prongslet is getting tired,”

Sirius noted dryly, though his expression was soft as he stared at his godson. Harry’s eyelids were slowly getting heavier as Paige continued to rock him.

“I’ll go put him down,” Paige slowly entered the bedroom, still rocking the sleeping boy.

Sirius stood there for a few minutes, a hesitant expression crossing his face before it became replaced by one of determination as he moved to follow her. Remus and Hermione watched Sirius walk up to Paige and gently place a hand on her back to let her know he was there.

Paige looked up in surprise before a warm smile crossed her face that Sirius returned before they began talking in soft tones.

Hermione turned to share an amused look with Remus, trying not to get caught in his vivid green eyes. A thought ran through her head and a frown formed that made Remus give her a worried look.

“I feel like I should apologize…”

“For what?” Remus asked, sounding genuinely bewildered at what she could possible be apologizing for.

“I can’t help but wonder if I forced you into accepting the position,” He watched Hermione turn her head away so she was looking at the coffee table, her hair falling onto her cheek. “I didn’t mean to, you really don’t have to…”

Remus shook his head, stepping forward and, after a brief moment of hesitation, brought his hands up to rest on her shoulders.

Brown eyes widened in disbelief as they turned to meet his gaze and Remus almost forgot what he was going to say. He shook his head and gently tightened his grip on them.

“No, I _want_ to take the position Hermione,” he let out a short laugh as he brought a hand up to run through his hair. “You’re right: the only people who know what the werewolves need are the werewolves themselves.”

“If taking this position means I can make things better for people like me,” His mouth turned up in a tired smile. “Then I will gladly take it.”

Hermione let out a soft sigh, smiling softly at him. The two of them stood there for a few minutes, Hermione taking a hesitant step closer when a cough sounded.

Hermione quickly jumped back and Remus turned an irritated expression onto his grinning best friend.

“Sorry Hermione, but Angel wanted to know where you put the new onesies for Prongslet?”

Hermione nodded, quickly heading into the bedroom. Remus watched her go with a wishful smile before he turned to glare at Sirius who was still grinning.

“Has anyone ever told you how much of a pain you are?”

“Yes,” Sirius stated cheerfully. “Angel especially takes great joy in doing so.”

The only response Remus had to that statement was to let out a loud chuckle, a grin stretching his face that seemed to make the scars on his face seem less prominent.

Sirius couldn’t help but think it had everything to do with the two young witches currently chatting in the bedroom and when he looked over his shoulder at them with a smile, he wondered what their lives would be like if they never showed up.

He doesn’t want to know the answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this was a productive day for Hermione and Paige. I always planned to have Remus help with the drafting of new werewolf laws, plus it means he and Hermione get to spend more time together! 
> 
> Next chapter will be the meetings with the various department heads, which hopefully won't end in murder, and the gang receives a dinner invitation.
> 
> Also, I do have a tumblr, the link is on my profile. Feel free to head over there to check out the outfits I plan to use for this story along with my other ones or you can ask me questions!


	8. The Problem with the Ministry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione and Paige meet with the departments and, surprisingly, don't end up murdering anyone. They come pretty close though.
> 
> Featuring nightmares, the reveal of scars, dinner invites and irritating Ministry officials.

Paige wasn’t quite sure what woke her up from her sleep, in fact, as she blinked to clean the sleep away from her eyes and lifted her head off of the papers scattered on the table, the flat was too silent for anything to have awoken her.

Then she heard it: it was faint but was the sound of someone in distress.

_“James…Lily…I’m sorry…”_

Shooting out of her seat Paige hurried to Sirius’s bedroom, her hand on the doorknob when she paused and hesitated. Would Sirius be mad if she woke him from the nightmare?

Another low moan sounded, and Paige decided to screw it, if Sirius got mad at her she’d deal with it as she turned the doorknob and opened it, the skirt of her red dressing robe brushing the ground when she hurried to Sirius’s bed, turning on the light as she did so.

His bare chest dripped with sweat, and he was twisting in his bed, almost knocking his covers off. If Paige weren’t so focused on his distress, she would have turned red at seeing his muscles strained. He was muttering to himself, it was mostly nonsense, but Paige could hear various iterations of _James, Lily_ and _sorry_.

“Sirius,” she whispered as she gently shook him. It didn’t work, and he tossed his head, his eyes tightly clenched as tears fell down his face.

“Sirius!”

A gasp escaped him, and grey eyes shot to hers as a hand tightly clamped around her wrist. Paige froze but didn’t move as she watched his chest rise and fall with each breath before he sat up, releasing her wrist and running a hand through his hair.

Slowly she sat down on the bed next to him, waiting a few minutes before speaking in a low tone, “It sounded like you were having a nightmare,”

Sirius looked at her, actually seeing her now that he had fully woken. A lump formed in his throat when he saw her green eyes light with compassion so much like Lily’s.

“I’m sorry I woke you,” he rasped, completely ignoring the previous statement. “You can go back to bed now.”

Sadly, that didn’t work as Paige narrowed her eyes at him and now, she looked like how Lily did whenever he and James would do something and try to keep it from her.

“I was busy trying to finish the papers for tomorrow’s meetings, so I wasn’t sleeping,” Paige gave him a sharp look. “And I’m certainly not going to bed _now_ unless you tell me what’s wrong.”

“Guilt,” His tone was unnecessarily sharp, and he saw her suck in a breath. “My guilt haunts me, is that what you want me to say, Angel?”

A twinge of pain resonated in her heart when she heard how soft he said the nickname that, though she had initially despised with a fiery passion, had slowly grown to love.

“I thought we had already established there was no reason for you to feel guilty about their deaths,” Paige pointed out softly, causing Sirius to let out a bitter chuckle.

“I thought I had erased the feelings as well,” he turned to give her a sad smile. “Apparently I hadn’t succeeded as well as I thought I did.”

Paige felt her mind and her heart warring with each other, and she struggled silently before letting out a sigh that made Sirius give her a confused look.

His eyes widened when she moved, so she was now fully on the bed, coming to sit beside him on her knees and, after a brief moment of hesitation, rested her head on his shoulder.

Heart pounding Sirius looked down at her, his hands clenched together before they eventually unclenched and he wrapped his arms around her.

The two of them sat there for a few minutes in silence before Paige broke it with a soft, “I know about guilt,”

He looked down at her in question, and she elaborated. “I feel guilty that my parents died for me, that other people died to protect me and…”

She trailed off, seemingly gathering herself and looking away as Sirius shifted so he could better see her face. “I feel guilty that I got my godfather killed,”

A look of surprise crossed his face before it turned into one of understanding as he pulled her closer, resting his chin on top of her head.

Even through the thick wool robe, she could feel the warmth of his body and, combined with the feelings she had thought she had squashed; she cursed when she felt tears pricking her eyes. Feeling the wetness land on his chest, Sirius once again shifted, so he was now lying on his back with Paige on his chest, burying her face in his neck as she let out quiet sobs.

Eventually, the sobs died down, and Sirius could feel her begin to relax and, after a few moments of silence, glanced down to see she had fallen asleep on his chest.

With a sigh, because he really didn’t want to get up and risk waking her, Sirius managed to turn the lights off with a flick of his hand and shut his eyes,

That night was the first night since James and Lily’s death that nightmares didn't plague his sleep.

* * *

 

Hermione let out a loud yawn as she sat up, stretching her arms above her head. A frown appeared on her mouth when she noticed Paige was not beside her; in fact, her side didn’t look like she had even touched it.

“I swear if she stayed up the whole night…”

Hermione muttered under her breath, walking over to take Harry out of his cot and exited the room, prepared to give her friend a piece of her mind.

But it would seem that wasn’t going to happen because, while there were papers spread out on the table, there was no sign of Paige.

“You look pensive, Miss Granger,”

Startled Hermione whirled around and flushed when she saw Remus coming out of the bathroom with his shirt unbuttoned, his wand in his hand.

“I’m wondering where Paige is, it didn’t look like she had even slept on her side,” Hermione watched Remus frown as he glanced over the table.

“Is it possible she went out for fresh air?”

At his words, the two reflexively looked over to the front door where their outer robes hung and found Paige’s still hanging on the hook.

“I don’t know where else she could be…” Hermione trailed off before slowly turning to look at Sirius’s bedroom before glancing at Remus who seemed to be having the same thought.

“You don’t think…”

There was a pause before Remus sighed and walked over, putting his hand on the doorknob and looking over his shoulder at Hermione with a soft grin as he turned it, “There’s only one way to find out,”

He opened the door and stood there in shock with Hermione for a few minutes, glancing at each other with bewildered expressions before turning back at the scene before them.

Paige was lying on top of Sirius, who Hermione noticed, was only wearing a pair of sweats. Sirius had his arm wrapped around her while Paige’s curls seemed to be in his face as her face was buried in his neck.

“When I said I wanted them to get along,” Hermione mused as she watched Remus quietly make his way over to the bed. “I didn’t quite mean _this_.”

“Padfoot, Paige,” Remus stated in a quiet voice as he tried to shake Sirius awake. To his amusement, Sirius raised his other arm to bat him away while Paige muttered something and tried to move further into Sirius’s embrace.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Remus raised his wand to his throat, and Hermione resignedly left the room, shutting the door just as Remus yelled, _“IT’S TIME TO GET UP!”_

Paige let out a scream as her eyes shot open and she scrambled to her knees. Sirius followed suit and called his wand to his hand before pointing it at the intruder.

Remus watched with a smirk as confusion crossed both their faces before it was replaced with realization and them embarrassment when the two of them realized what was happening. Paige turned as red as her robe and Sirius glared at his best friend—though using that term might be a stretch.

“What the bloody hell are you doing in my room Moony?” Sirius demanded as Paige hurried to get off the bed. He ignored the fact that the action made him even _more_ irritated with Remus.

“Hermione woke up and found Paige, not in their bed, so she got worried,” Remus explained, not batting an eye at the daggers Sirius shot him with his eyes

“I suppose I should go over our reports with her,” Paige said in a hurried tone, rushing past Remus and opening the door.

“Not one word Moony,” Sirius grumbled as he got out of bed, heading over to his closet to get dressed and ignoring the smirk he could feel aimed at him.

When they rejoined the witches, Paige was feeding Harry in his highchair while Hermione read the reports out loud. Paige briefly looked up and met Sirius’s eyes, a smile pulling at her lips before she turned her attention back to Harry when he attempted to grab the spoon from her.

“Your first meeting is with Bagnold, right?” Remus asked as he pulled out the chair beside Hermione, giving her a soft smile that she returned with a slight flush in her cheeks.

“Yes, to show her the finished reports,” Paige replied, Sirius having taken over feeding Harry. “She might ask us to change things—”

“—which I doubt she will, considering how thorough they are,” Sirius cut in, grinning at Paige who shook her head with a smile.

“Otherwise we’ll proceed to have meetings with the higher-ups of every department and begun discussing implementing the changes,”

“And that’s where the hard part comes in,” Sirius noted bitterly, causing Hermione to huff in agreement.

 Her and Paige both knew how difficult it was getting the Ministry to change, even back in their world, the reforms were hard to pass.

“On that note, you should probably get dressed,” Sirius grinned at Paige, his gaze wandering down her clothes. “While it would be _hilarious_ to see the stuck-up purebloods reaction to seeing you yell at them in your sleeping robes, it wouldn’t be effective.”

Paige snorted but stood up, moving to head into the bedroom with Hermione following her friend. Sirius caught her arm and whispered something in her ear that had her blushing.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at her friend, but Paige pointedly ignored her as they entered their room, heading to the wardrobe.

Paige chose to wear a black underrobe with a black and white overcoat, swirling golden decals overlaid on the coat, her hair pulled back in a half braided updo with Hermione’s help while Hermione was dressed in a navy-blue robe with military-style buttons on the top half, her curls arranged in a simple twist.

“You ready to deal with a group of purebloods who are probably going to argue with us every step of the way?”

Hermione chuckled, a smirk forming on her lips. “I’ve been waiting for this,” she said as she began walking to the door.

“On the bright side,” Paige began, causing Hermione to look over her shoulder in question. “You might get the chance to punch Malfoy Senior.”

The grin that appeared on Hermione’s face was _terrifying,_ and Paige couldn’t help but enjoy it. Hermione, after all, could be very scary sometimes.

* * *

 

Hermione had known the meeting with the RCMC was going to be difficult, especially when one considered that Dolores Umbridge—who had a special place of hatred in Hermione and Paige’s heart—currently worked for the department and was high-ranking enough to be part of the meeting.

She didn’t, however, expected her temper to become flared quite so quickly.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Hermione resisted the urge to bare her teeth as Umbridge spoke in her familiar sickly-sweet voice. “why we should hire this _Lupin_ person, especially considering his condition?”

“I believe I already laid it out for you, Miss Umbridge,” Hermione forced a polite smile on her face as she looked at the woman, who looked like she hadn’t aged a day in her frilly pink outfits. “To better create a relationship with the werewolves, Miss Potter and I determined having one of their own as an ambassador would—”

“And _why_ , exactly, do we want to create a relationship with the _werewolves_?”

Umbridge cut in sweetly, still managing to keep a smile on her face though Hermione could see the disgust pooling in her eyes. “After all, they are dangerous creatures.”

“They’re about as dangerous as the Death Eaters, yet we still have a relationship with them,” Hermione pointed out cheerfully, causing whispers to rise among the gathered group as Umbridge’s smile faltered.

“Despite your opinion, Miss Umbridge, not all werewolves are dangerous,” Hermione’s tone became serious as she fixed the woman with a sharp look. “But what _is_ dangerous is isolating and discriminating them, which leads to them being outcasts and ultimately forces them to join Voldemort despite many of them not wanting to.”

Everyone in the room flinched when Hermione said His name, but she ignored and remained focused on Umbridge who let out a shrill laugh as if Hermione’s words amused her.

“Surely you are aware of how many people have been attacked by werewolves or even disfigured—”

Hermione, frustrated beyond belief and tired of Umbridge’s holier-than-thou attitude, roughly pulled up her sleeve to show the somewhat healed _mudblood_ carved into her arm.

A silence fell over the room as everyone turned to stare at it, horrified and transfixed by it. Even Umbridge didn’t say anything, though Hermione noted she didn’t look quite as horrified as everyone else was.

“I can assure you, Miss Umbridge, it wasn’t a werewolf that did this to my arm,” Hermione said, her tone icy. “It was someone just like you and me—well, more you than me.”

There might have been an insult in there, but beyond a flaring of her nostrils, Umbridge didn’t comment.

“Werewolves can be dangerous, I do not deny that, but witches and wizards can be just as dangerous,” Hermione’s mouth turned up in a sharp smile. “We might be more dangerous.”

She pulled down her sleeve, now regretting that she had revealed her scar as she could hear the whispers around the room.

“Over the next few days we will be working on the revisions of the creature laws,” Hermione stated, her tone making it clear this wasn’t a suggestion but an order. “The laws should be far more sympathetic to those it affects, though it still needs to be firm.”

“The Minister has given her full approval to the changes I mentioned in the report,” she gestured at the paper in front of her. “She has also made it clear that anyone who does not want to implement the changes is welcome to visit her in her office to discuss it.”

There was a hidden meaning not explicitly stated but still implied that anyone who did pay the Minister a visit would be packing up their stuff.

“Thank you, ladies and gentleman,” Hermione gathered up her things and gave the room a polite smile. “I will be visiting you tomorrow to start the revisions; I shall send an owl with details on the time.”

Not giving them a chance to reply Hermione quickly left the office, heading to the lift with a hurried pace. She didn’t doubt word about her scar would spread around the Ministry.

A sigh escaped her, and she wondered how, exactly, she got herself into the situations. It probably had something to do with Paige, she concluded with a smile as she continued to her next meeting. 

That was always a fair assumption to make, from her experience.

* * *

 

“You want us to have a trial for every single prisoner in Azkaban?”

“Not everyone,” Paige corrected, feeling a headache start to grow as she stared at the scowling Crouch. “Only those who did not receive a proper trial.”

She pushed the folder to Crouch, who glared at it as if it had greatly offended him. “Many prisoners were sent straight to Azkaban; some had trials scheduled that never happened while others weren’t even given that decency.”

Sharp green eyes fixed on the MLE head, and Paige was pleased to note he fidgeted in his seat even as he stated, “They were Death Eaters, they didn’t deserve—”

“It is not your place to decide what they did or did not deserve,” Paige cut him off sharply. “You circumvented the law and did not give them the rights they were afforded.”

“Trials need to be arranged to correct _your_ mistake, and if you are not willing to do it, I will find someone who will.”

That final ultimatum seemed to shut down Crouch, though he still glared at Paige. Taking a deep breath to calm herself she pulled out another report.

“You are Mr. Arthur Weasley, correct?” Paige turned to the familiar red-haired man, who seemed startled at being addressed.

“Yes, I am,” he recovered quickly, raising an eyebrow when she slid the report across to him.

“One of the main things I discussed with Minister Bagnold was the idea of having more contact with our Muggle neighbours, and we concluded that a separate department would need to be created to accomplish that,”

A smile formed on her face as she opened the folder and said in a gentle tone, “I would like _you_ to be the head of the newly formed Muggle Affairs department.”

Shock appeared on Arthur’s face as he stared at the report then at Paige. He did this a few times, not believing what he was saying. “Is this a joke?”

“No, Mr. Weasley, I am honest,” Paige insisted. “It’s well-known that you care deeply about Muggles and deeply wish for equality between them and us, who else is there more worthy of the job?”

Arthur looked like he might cry as he stood up and began shaking her hand. “Thank you, Miss Potter, this is an incredible honor.”

Paige’s smile became brighter as she put her hand over his before she cleared her throat. “I hope to work closely with you during the formation of this department, I don’t intend on taking over, but Hermione and I would like to provide you with any assistance we can.”

“I shall greatly welcome it,” Arthur replied sincerely, giving her a wide smile before taking his seat when he saw the annoyed look on Crouch’s face.

“Before I continue with the rest of my report, I would like to ask everyone except Auror Bones, Mr. Crouch and Mr. Weasley to leave,” The room became louder as angry voices rose up, but Paige cut over them in a sharp tone. “That was _not_ a request.”

There was grumbling, but eventually, those not named began to leave until only four people were left in the room. Amelia gave Paige a curious look. “Why did you want the room to be emptied, Miss Potter?”

“Because what I am about to reveal should be considered sensitive information and I wished that few people as possible were aware of it,” Paige took a deep breath before pulling out a stack of folders and placing them on the table.

“These are the reports compiled on several raids conducted by the MLE in an attempt to capture known Death Eaters,” Paige watched Amelia pick up one of the folders and began to look through it. “Said raids were never successful, either the targets were nowhere to be found, or the Aurors and Hit Wizards ended up in an ambush that led to several deaths.”

“Why are you bringing these up now?” Crouch grumbled, giving her a dark look.

Paige gave him a polite smile before waving her wand and summoning a few personnel files. “During my audit, I found these individuals had been involved with all of the raids, and in the days leading up to the raids they were suspiciously late to or absent from the meetings.”

“You are suggesting they were informants?” Amelia’s eyes were cold as she stared at Paige, who let out a sigh. “Yes, sadly they were.”

“And what led you to this conclusion Miss Potter?” Arthur asked quickly, seeing Crouch turning purple slowly with rage. 

“Simple: I reached out to the Unspeakables as I understand they conduct covert operations and figured they might have some intel,” Paige leaned forward on the table with a sad smile. “I got into contact with an anonymous person who confirmed that these people were Death Eater sympathizers.”

Paige watched carefully as Amelia dropped the folder and put her head in her hands, running them through her hair before letting out a frustrated noise. “What do you suggest we do Miss Potter?”

“For now? Leave them in place,” she raised a hand seeing the outrage spread across Amelia’s face. “I know you don’t want to, but the fact is that there are still several Death Eaters still at large—including the Lestranges—and these informants may be able to lead us to them.”

“Can’t we just cut them out?” Crouch demanded, still looking morose as he stared at Paige. “Not give them any important information?”

“They will become suspicious then, Mr. Crouch, and worried,” Paige replied, putting her hands on her hips. “It might cause them to run, and then we lose a good source of information.”

“We’ll be putting many good Aurors and Hit Wizards and Witches at risk, Miss Potter, if we allow these spies to stay,” Amelia pointed out and was startled by the look Paige gave her.

“I am aware of the risk Amelia,” Paige said, the use of Amelia’s first name showing how serious Paige was. “There are people I don’t want to be in danger, but this is what is best.”

The two women stared at each other for a few minutes, having a conversation with just their eyes before Amelia sighed and nodded, conceding the point.

“Besides, I’m not suggesting we leave the entire department in the dark,” Paige continued, glancing around at the people in the room. “There are Aurors that I trust immensely—”

“I assume _Black_ would be one of those aurors,” Crouch remarked bitterly, causing Arthur and Amelia to share tired expressions while Paige glared at him.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, he is one,” she pointedly turned away from him and faced Amelia and Arthur. “Along with Vance, Shacklebolt and the Longbottoms; I’m sure you also have aurors you can trust Auror Bones.”

Amelia inclined her head in agreement as Paige closed her folder. “What do you suggest we do then, Miss Potter?”

“Tag them,” was Paige’s simple reply. “If they get into contact with any known Death Eater, we’ll know it, and we can use that to bring them down.”

Amelia nodded and stood up, followed by Arthur and a grumbling Crouch. “Is there anything else, Miss Potter?”

“Just one more thing,” Paige’s green eyes became cold as she scanned the room, focusing particularly on Crouch. “As I said before, this information should be considered _confidential_ : If I find out that anything I just mentioned is leaked in any way, I will be informing the Minister.”

“Am I clear?”

“Yes, Miss Potter,” The three occupants chorused, Crouch doing so reluctantly.

With that, the meeting concluded, and Paige gathered her things, watching Crouch shoot her one last glare before storming out.

“Thank you once again for this opportunity Miss Potter,” Paige turned and smiled when she saw Arthur approaching her. “It was no trouble, Mr. Weasley, as I said before you are very well-suited to this role.”

“Please, call me Arthur,” he insisted as he followed her out. Paige let out a soft chuckle. “Then you must call me Paige.”

Arthur smiled and opened his mouth to respond only for his eyes to widen when he spotted something over her shoulder. “Molly, what are you doing here?”

Paige turned as Arthur went to greet his wife, pressing a kiss to her cheek. She smiled at him, cheeks slightly flushed. “Well, Gideon came by the house and offered to watch the children, so I decided to come by and surprise you.”

Her gaze become curious as she looked at Paige and Arthur cleared his throat. “Right, where are my manners? Molly, this is Paige Potter, one of the witches who’s auditing the Ministry. Paige, this is my lovely wife, Molly.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Weasley,” Paige shook the woman’s hand, struck by how young she looked.

“Angel!”

Three heads turned to see Sirius making his way over to them, his familiar grin on his face. Paige didn’t miss how the grin seemed to falter slightly when he saw Molly, though he tried to hide it by casually throwing his arm over her shoulder.

“Molly, Arthur, how are the little ones?” His tone was deceptively indifferent, but Paige could feel him slightly tighten his grip. “Still driving you mad?”

“Well, the twins can certainly be a handful,” Arthur laughed, rubbing the back of his head while putting his arm on his wife’s hip. “I fear they view the Marauders as, well, their idols.”

“It certainly doesn’t help that Gideon tells them stories,” Molly huffed before staring at Sirius, who returned the look.

The two of them continued this odd staring contest for a few minutes before Molly broke it by clearing her throat, a soft smile on her face. “I never got the chance to tell you, Sirius, but…thank you, for everything,”

Paige glanced curiously at Sirius, who looked away from the redhead’s stare before replying, his jaw tensing slightly. “I don’t deserve it, but I’ll accept it.”

“Your godson’s one, isn’t he?” Molly hurried on as if everyone in wizarding Britain didn’t know how old Harry was. “That’s the same age as our youngest; you should come by for dinner one time.”

“Ah, Molly,” Arthur looked between Sirius and his wife with a nervous expression. “There’s no pressure Sirius, really, you don’t have to if you don’t want to…”

Sirius sighed and, to Paige’s surprise, turned to look at her with a wry smile. “What do you think Angel? Can we fit that into our schedule?”

Paige blinked before recovering with a shake of her head. “Yes, I’ll have to check my schedule, but I don’t see why we couldn’t,” she looked at the redhaired couple. “Is it possible we could bring Remus and Hermione along?”

“Yes, yes of course,” Molly exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. “Please, the more, the merrier! Oh, maybe we should invite Marlene and the Longbottoms—”

“—We’ll be eagerly expecting your owl,” Arthur spoke over his wife’s excited chatter and, to Sirius and Paige’s amusement, began gently leading her away by the arm though not before both said their goodbyes.

“Well, it looks like we have a dinner date,” Sirius stated as he and Paige turned, walking towards the floos. “So, I heard an interesting thing today…”

Paige looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Considering Hermione and I just shook up the Ministry, I imagine there are a lot of interesting things being passed around so you’ll have to be more specific,”

“Hermione revealed a scar on her arm,” he watched as Paige’s expression seemed to darken. “And that’s not just a rumor, it seems,”

“No,”

Sirius glanced around before pulling Paige in an out-of-the-way alcove, leaning in to whisper, “and the rumor that the scar is the word _mudblood_?”

Paige let out a soft, bitter laugh before giving him a sad smile. “I wish it was just a rumor.”

“How…?” Sirius shook his head. “You know what? I don’t think I want to know.”

“Believe me, you don’t,” Paige agreed as they resumed their walk. “I wish I didn’t know.”

* * *

 

Hermione let out a sigh when she entered the flat, seeing Remus at her expectantly. There was no sign of Paige or Sirius so she guessed they wanted to let her and Remus talk privately. “I’m guessing you heard?”

“Let me see it,” Remus demanded and Hermione glared, debating whether or not to tell him to shove it.

But she saw the expression on his face and her glare softened as she realized he was concerned about her, so with a huff she slowly rolled up her sleeve and presented her arm to him.

She watched as he gently touched her arm, a shiver running down her spine when he traced the words. His green eyes hardened before he lifted his head slowly to look at her. “How did you get this?”

“That’s not important—it isn’t,” she insisted when she saw the expression on his face. “It happened during the hunt for the horcruxes, that’s all you need to know.”

Remus opened his mouth to protest but closed it as his jaw tensed. The two of them stood there for a few minutes before Hermione broke it with a cough.

“If you’re up to it, I’d like to discuss some ideas for new werewolf laws…”

Remus hadn’t completely dropped the discussion about Hermione’s scar but with a smile, he listened as she began talking about including protection for werewolf employment.

In the end, the two of them didn’t stop talking until well into the morning, where Paige and Sirius found them curled up on the couch. Remus’s hand still gently brushed the arm that contained the scar.

It was very cute, Paige insisted as she dodged Hermione’s curses with a laugh, very cute indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, finals happened so obviously my priorities ended up shifting but I am done, for now, tomorrow I will be moving into spring residence because I need to take a course in order to graduate so yeah!
> 
> Fair warning: this course is five days a week from like 8 until 3, plus I also have night labs so it's entirely possible I won't be posting anything from May 6th until the 24th. That being said, I do have a few days before class starts so I may be able to post something before then but I can't promise anything.
> 
> In any case, hopefully, you enjoyed this chapter and the next one will feature the dinner with the Weasleys!


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